JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM
TURNER, KEELMEN HEAVING IN COALS BY MOONLIGHT
[sound effects: water lapping against the boats, men working, shovels scraping, men shouting in the distance]
FEMALE NARRATOR
What’s going on here?
This painting shows a view of the busy harbor. Location: Tyneside, a town in northeast England. This region was England’s mining and industrial center. In the 19th century, and coal was an essential source of power.
On the right side of the painting skilled boatmen, known as keelmen, are hard at work. Their job was to transport the coal from the mines, up the Tyne river to the harbor. They navigated the shallow river in flat-bottomed boats called keels. When they arrived at the harbor, they would shovel the coal from their keel into the large ships docked there.
Can you tell what time of day is it? The fiery torchlights are clues. The keelmen loaded the ships at night, so that they could depart with the morning tide and take the cargo down the coast to London.
Although this painting describes an industry important to England during the Industrial Revolution, it is not the focus of the composition – the true subject of this painting is light.
A full moon illuminates the cloudy sky and its reflection glitters on the smooth surface of the water. The artist, J.M.W. Turner experimented with painting techniques to convey mood and atmosphere. Looking closely at the surface – can you can see that he painted some areas more thickly than others? The silvery-white moon and the yellow-orange torch-lights, for example. Turner created a textured surface, and these raised areas literally catch light on the surface of the canvas.
Joseph Mallord William Turner was born in London in 1775 and lived there all his life. He traveled for inspiration and filled sketchbooks with his observations. He was especially interested in nature, weather conditions, and the sea. In 1818, Turner visited the town of Tyneside but it wasn’t until 17 years later that he made this oil painting of the place he’d visited. Back in his London studio, his sketchbooks served as a memory bank for ideas. Why do you think Turner choose to paint this scene at night?
