Was JMW Turner’s mother really ‘mentally ill’? | Letter

It seems likely the artist’s family wanted to get rid of a woman who was just difficult to get along with, writes Helen James

JMW Turner mother’s died when she was 29, when he was busy preparing for and opening his first public exhibition, and her “mental illness”, referred to in your review of the BBC Two documentary Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks (19 November), should be described as “purported”.

We only have the testimony provided by the actions of her husband and son, who sent her to a lunatic asylum designed for paupers, when they were in fact not poor and could have accommodated her in a better environment with better care, and thereby lengthened her life.