Couldn't be more appropriate really. Turner filled several sketchbooks with his impressions of famous Loire chateaux, such as Amboise, Saumur, Blois and Chambord, which supplied him with the perfect combination of hill, castle, town,bridge, river and people.
In 1826, when he was in his fifties and at the height of his powers, Turner spent two weeks travelling up the Loire from Nantes to Orléans. The results of his project were produced in his book Wanderings by the Loire, published in 1833, as part of a Rivers of France series.
Turner with his passion for sail, water, light and reflection, chose a good time to make the trip. Loire navigation was in the process of transformation. It appears he took the steamboat from Nantes to Angers - a new service - and then afterwards travelled by coach. so Turner was able to see the juxtaposition of steam and sail at close hand.
Clearly a very useful study source.
As to the film, well anything with Mr. Timothy Spall in it has a head-start as far as I'm concerned. The film was a really classy piece of work. Beautiful opening scenes of the Dutch landscape evoked Turner's colour palette. Came away with a real sense of person, place, the times. But strangely although engrossed by the film, I wasn't moved by it.
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