Audio Stop 606

00:00 00:00

We hover over a flax-yellow body of water lined with ships to our left and right, which are silhouetted against a moonlit, cloud-veiled sky in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes about a third of the way up the composition. The moon hangs to our left of center in the sky, its light reflecting on the clouds in a bright, hourglass shape to create a tunnel-like effect. The sea below turns from a gold color close to us to pale blue along the horizon. To our left, one ship with gray sails is cut off by the edge of the canvas and another, also with gray sails, is situated farther from us. A small, dark rowboat with two passengers moves between them. Light from the windows in buildings along the distant horizon to our left reflect in the water, and another building, a factory, spouts white flame from its chimney. More dark ships line the waterway to our right, their spiky masts black against the sky. Three flames, one orange between two pale yellow fires, flare in the darkness in front of the ship closest to us. The forms of men shoveling coal, crates, and barges are dark silhouettes against the firelight and smoke. More rowboats float among the boats in the distance. Near the lower right corner of the canvas, a broad, flat fragment of wood floats close to us. The hot orange and black on the right side of the painting contrasts with the silvery gray, light blue, and white that fills much of the rest of the composition. The painting was created with thick, blended brushstrokes throughout, giving the scene a hazy look. The texture of some of the brushstrokes is especially noticeable, as where the moon casts white light onto the water and in the clouds. The artist signed a buoy floating to our left with his initials, “JMWT.”

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight, 1835

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 57

Read full audio transcript

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 19^th 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?

Kids West Building Tour