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Joseph Mallord William Turner excelled at capturing the beauty and mysteries of light. Cool, white moonlight contrasts with warm, yellow and orange firelight. Shimmering reflections animate the water’s still surface.


The setting is the port of Newcastle, England, where coal from inland mines is being loaded onto ships. Coal was used to fuel the factories, mills, railroads, steamships, and other great machines that were transforming Britain during the Industrial Revolution. The dark smoke rising on the right may refer to the increasing air pollution.

Details

  • Title: Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight
  • Creator: Joseph Mallord William Turner
  • Date Created: 1835
  • Physical Dimensions: overall: 92.3 x 122.8 cm (36 5/16 x 48 3/8 in.) framed: 127.6 x 158.1 x 14 cm (50 1/4 x 62 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.)
  • Provenance: Painted for Henry McConnel [1801-1871], The Polygon, Ardwick, Manchester; sold 1849 to John Naylor, Leighton Hall, Liverpool;[1] passed to his wife; purchased 1910 through (Dyer and Sons) by (Thos. Agnew & Sons, London); re-entered April 1910 in Agnew's stock in joint ownership with (Arthur J. Sulley & Co., London); purchased 13 June 1910 from (Arthur J. Sulley & Co., London) by Peter A.B. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park. [1] This work was painted as a companion to NGA 1942.9.85 (_Venice: The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore_), exhibited the previous year at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and also owned by McConnel. He was obliged to sell the pictures at a time of business adversity, but regretted selling his Turners to John Naylor, and in 1861 tried, unsuccessfully, to buy at least one of them back. Letter from McConnel to John Naylor, 28 May 1861 (quoted in Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, _The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner_, 2 vols., rev. ed., New Haven: 1984: I:205).
  • Medium: oil on canvas

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