A work by Boris Johnson's mother on display in a former hospital

The exhibition, titled What It Felt Like, will feature paintings that the artist, who died in 2021 aged 79, created while she was a patient at London's Maudsley Hospital in 1974.

Ms. Johnson Wahl never hid her mental health problems, including her food phobias, and her work let the hospital know that she did not have a good time, according to Colin Gale, director of the Bethlem Museum of the Mind where the exhibition will be held, and which is based in another former London psychiatric hospital.

Mr Gale told the PA news agency: She was an artist in her own right who probably never got the recognition she probably deserved during her lifetime outside of her wide circle of friends and family , and his work is not widely represented in museum collections.

We've wanted to do this exhibition for years, but it's probably truer to say that we never thought it would be possible because it would require being in networks that we perhaps didn't have access to.

Our exhibition is very closely focused on the period of work carried out by Charlotte Johnson Wahl over nine months while she was a patient at Maudsley Hospital, our sister hospital in Camberwell.

It’s a period of time that she never hid. She was always completely open during her life, always completely frank and transparent about why she was there and her experiences there.

But it is art that has this incredible documentary character because it paints what it sees, it turns its gaze towards everyday life within the institution.

She didn't have a good time and she let the hospital know.

According to Mr. Gale, Ms. Johnson Wahl persuaded the hospital to have a private exhibition of her work in its boardroom while she was a patient, and gave the institution a painting titled It Has Not Worked, which shows his hands outstretched in despair.

The museum director said Ms Johnson Wahl felt that after her stay at Maudsley she was not in a better situation and left the painting for the hospital.

Despite the paintings' difficult subjects, Mr. Gale said Ms. Johnson Wahl retained her sense of humor, particularly with the work Canteen With No Food, which depicted the hospital dining room filled with patients without nothing to eat, due to his food phobia.

Mr Gale said he hoped the exhibition would inspire others struggling with their mental health, adding: It's about inspiring people to get rid of that stigma (around mental health) and to talk about the struggles they face.

So the exhibition is called What It Felt Like, because we think that's a good description of precisely what she was trying to do with her (work).

Some things are really very intertwined, if for whatever reason you are hospitalized and separated from a young family that you are responsible for, it is only natural that it will be really anxiety-inducing. So there are some images that reflect that.

What I hope is that people will say, oh yes, Ms. Johnson's clan, but I hope that in reality the interest will come not from who they are, but simply because it is so relatable as an experience of family breakdown.

Ms Johnson Wahl married Stanley Johnson, author and former MEP, in 1963 and they divorced in 1979. She is also the mother of former government minister Lord Jo Johnson, journalist Rachel Johnson and her youngest son , Leo Johnson.

What It Felt Like will take place at Bethlem Museum of the Mind in Beckenham from December 11 to March 29, 2025, with free entry.

Based in the 1930s administration building of Bethlem Royal Hospital, the museum aims to celebrate the lives and achievements of people with mental health problems.