Dr Madeleine Callaghan, Senior Lecturer in the School of English, has appeared as an expert on the critically acclaimed BBC documentary Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks.
Alongside a star-studded cast including Tracey Emin, Ronnie Wood, Chris Packham and Timothy Spall, Dr Callaghan draws on her expertise in the Romantic period to illuminate the social, historical and biographical contexts shaping J. M. W. Turner’s work.
She explores the personal complexities of Turner’s early life, including his relationship with his mother, Mary Turner, who suffered from severe mental illness at a time when such conditions were highly stigmatised and widely believed to be hereditary. Turner’s decision to have her institutionalised at St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics, and his decision to never again contact her, is often speculated to have heavily influenced both Turner’s artistic vision and ambition.
Dr Callaghan also provides insight into Turner’s experience as a young, working-class artist attempting to succeed within a world dominated by upper-class values, referring to the Royal Academy of Arts of the time as a “viper’s nest”. She highlights the hostility he faced from members of the artistic establishment, including Sir George Beaumont, who disparagingly described Turner as “the artist who has misled the taste of the entire nation”, before his eventual acceptance by the artistic establishment. Works such as Frosty Morning would later attract praise, with critics remarking that “everything is just as perfectly as in nature”.
Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks offers audiences an intimate glimpse into one of Britain’s most enigmatic artists, and Dr Callaghan’s contribution underscores the School of English’s strength in research that connects historical scholarship with contemporary public engagement.
The documentary is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.