Spall pinpoints Turner’s anti social attitude well, and also communicates his passion for painting seaside scenes and ships, as shown in Margate coastal settings. Spall also is convincing in defying those who would condemn his art, advanced for its time, and his preference for leaving his work for posterity to the government, rather than accepting a bundle of money from a collector.

But it is through his relationships with women that we see Turner at his most human, and also at his most crass. Dorothy Atkinson plays his housekeeper, with whom Spall perfunctorily has sex, using her for his pleasure but not giving her any warmth or love in return. It is in later life that he takes up seriously with his landlady Sophie Booth, a widow, given a lovely performance by Marion Bailey. They form a strong attachment, and Spall makes clear that Turner cares for her, as she does for him.

There is a very droll scene in which critic John Ruskin praises the work of Turner, who is shown to be ungrateful as he criticizes Ruskin. Joshua McGuire plays Ruskin in an ultra effeminate manner that is quite funny. Whether this is historically correct is another matter.

The final scenes in Turner’s life, when he is fatally ill and fading, evoke pity, not only for him, but for Sophie, who feels his death with pain, given what he has come to mean in her life.

Dick Pope’s cinematography is brilliant and gives the film a visual expression that harmoniously evokes the tones of Turner’s paintings.