Enfilade

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In 2012, updates on the Turner Bequest cataloging project described the effort as a 30-year initiative with a completion date of 2014. A decade later, this short film marks the close of the project’s final phase.

“Completing the Turner Cataloguing Project | What Can Turner’s Sketchbooks Tell Us? New Discoveries,” 11 minutes, produced by Storya, 2025. Featuring Matthew Imms, Hayley Flynn, Hannah Kaspar, and Vanessa Otim.

Marking 250 years since the birth of J.M.W. Turner, this short documentary explores the closing chapter of a decades-long cataloguing project that has transformed how we see one of Britain’s greatest artists. Commissioned by the Paul Mellon Centre in collaboration with Tate, the film captures the final phase of cataloguing Turner’s 37,000 drawings, sketchbooks, and watercolours—the largest holding of preparatory works by a single artist in the world.

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The catalogue is available here»

David Blayney Brown, ed., J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings, and Watercolours (London: Tate Research Publication, 2012).

Landscape and history painter, master draughtsman and watercolourist, tireless traveller, poet and teacher, J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) exemplifies the energy, imagination and enquiring spirit of his time. For his admirer John Ruskin he was “the greatest of the age.” Explore the world’s largest collection of Turner’s sketchbooks, drawings and watercolours and its unique insights into the artist’s mind and creative process. Follow him as he toured Britain and Europe, discovered new subjects, styles and techniques, and developed his pictures, poetry and prints.

J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours is a growing catalogue of the many thousands of original works on paper in Tate’s collection, drawn mainly from Turner’s bequest of his collection to the nation. Divided into five sections covering different phases in Turner’s career, the catalogue consists of thematic groupings of works, arranged chronologically and by subject. Entries on the groupings and individual works provide detailed commentaries, exhibition and publication histories, and information about the media and materials used.

Research Leads
Martha Barratt — Senior Research Editor
Amy Concannon — Manton Senior Curator, Historic British Art

Project Editors
David Blayney Brown — Curator British Art, 1790–1850
Matthew Imms — Senior Cataloguer
Jennifer Mundy — Head of Art Historical Research

The full contributor list is available here»