MR. TURNER explores the last quarter century of the life of J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), the singleminded artist who worked hard and travelled extensively.
Turner is profoundly affected by the death of his ex-barber father, he takes up with a widow, Mrs. Booth, a seaside landlady, and is plagued occasionally by an ex-lover, Sarah Danby, by whom he has two illegitimate adult daughters, whose existence he invariably denies.
He enjoys the hospitality of the landed aristocracy, he visits a brothel, he is fascinated by science, photography and railways, he is a popular if anarchic member of the Royal Academy of Arts, and he has himself tied to the mast of a ship in bad weather in order to paint a snowstorm.
He is celebrated by some, and reviled by others. He refuses an offer of £100,000 from a millionaire who wants to buy all his work, preferring to bequeath it to the British nation, whereas Queen Victoria loathes his work.
Throughout the story he is loved by his stoical housekeeper, Hannah, whom he takes for granted and whom he occasionally exploits sexually.
Eventually, he leads a double existence, living incognito with Mrs. Booth in Chelsea, where he dies. Hannah is unaware of this until the very end.
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