National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight

Overview

Here Turner brings the great force of his romantic genius to a common scene of working–class men at hard labor. Although the subject of the painting is rooted in the grim realities of the industrial revolution, in Turner's hands it transcends the specifics of time and place and becomes an image of startling visual poetry.

An almost palpable flood of moonlight breaks through the clouds in a great vault that spans the banks of the channel and illuminates the sky and the water. The heavy impasto of the moon's reflection on the unbroken expanse of water rivals the radiance of the sky, where gradations of light create a powerful, swirling vortex.

To the right, the keelmen and the dark, flat–bottomed keels that carried the coal from Northumberland and Durham down the River Tyne are silhouetted against the orange and white flames from the torches, as the coal is transferred to the sailing ships. To the left, square riggers wait to sail out on the morning tide. Behind these ships Turner suggested the distant cluster of factories and ships with touches of gray paint and a few thin lines. Through the shadowy atmosphere ships' riggings, keels and keelmen, fiery torches, and reflections on the water merge into a richly textured surface pattern.

Inscription

lower left on buoy: JMWT

Marks and Labels

null

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).

Exhibition History

1835
Modern Artists, Royal Manchester Institution, 1835, no. 260.
1835
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1835, no. 24.
1854
Pictures, Exhibited at a Soirée, Given by John Buck Lloyd, Esquire, Mayor of Liverpool, Town Hall, Liverpool, 23 September 1854, no. 21.
1887
Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1887, no. 14.
1914
Paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. and J.M.W. Turner, R.A., M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, 1914, no. 36.
1974
Turner 1775-1851, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1974-1975, no. 513, color repro.
1983
J.M.W. Turner, Grand Palais, Paris, 1983-1984, no. 61, color repro.
1986
Turner, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 1986, no. 33, color repro.
1996
Turner, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1996, no. 18, repro.
1997
The Victorians: British Painting in the Reign of Queen Victoria, 1837-1901, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1997, no. 1, color repro., as Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Night.
2003
Turner and Venice, Tate Britain, London; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 2003-2004, no. 38, repro.
2003
Turner: The Late Seascapes, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown; Manchester Art Gallery; The Burrell Collection, Glasgow, 2003-2004, unnumbered catalogue, fig. 23, repro. (shown only in Williamstown).
2007
J.M.W. Turner, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Dallas Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2007-2008, no. 115, repro.
2012
Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude, The National Gallery, London, 2012, no. 55, repro.

Bibliography

1835
Fraser's Magazine 12 (12 July 1835): 55.
1835
London Literary Gazette, no. 955, 9 May 1835: 298.
1835
Morning Chronicle, 6 May 1835.
1835
Spectator, 8, no. 358, 9 May 1835: 447.
1835
The Times (London), 23 May 1835.
1915
Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: British and Modern French Schools, Philadelphia, 1915: unpaginated, repro.
1923
Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro.
1931
Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 20, repro.
1942
Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 7.
1944
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 148, color repro.
1948
Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 97, repro.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 148
1960
The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 26.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 322, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 133
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:372, color repro.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 120, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 354, repro.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 600, color repro.
1979
Watson, Ross. National Gallery of Art. London, 1979: 99, pl. 87, color repro.
1979
Wilton, Andrew. The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner. London, 1979: 220, color pl. 217 (detail).
1980
Collected Correspondence of J.M.W. Turner. Edited by John Gage. Oxford, 1980: 159, no. 198.
1984
Butlin, Martin and Evelyn Joll. The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner. 2 vols. New Haven and London, 1977. (2d rev. ed., 1984): 1:no. 360; 2:color pl. 363.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 413, no. 585, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 405, repro.
1986
Treuherz, Julian. "The Turner Collector: Henry McConnel, Cotton Spinner." Turner Studies 6 (1986): 38-39, 40-41, 42, fig. 3.
1987
Wilton, Andrew. Turner in His Time. London, 1987: 186, repro. 253.
1992
Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 278-280, color repro. 279.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 157, repro.
1997
The Victorians: British Painting in the Reign of Queen Victoria, 1837-1901. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1997: no. 1.
1997
Rodner, William S. J.M.W. Turner: Romantic Painter of the Industrial Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: v, 298-299, 346-3471, no. 278, color repro.
2008
Schwander, Martin, ed. Venice: From Canaletto and Turner to Monet. Ostfildern, 2008: 61, 67 n. 14.
2011
Tabili, Laura. Global Migrants, Local Culture: Natives and Newcomers in Provincial England, 1841-1939. London, 2011: cover, color repro.

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