Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight | |
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Artist | J. M. W. Turner |
Year | 1835 |
Type | Oil on canvas, landscape painting |
Dimensions | 92.3 cm× 122.8 cm(36.33 in× 48.34 in) |
Location | National Gallery of Art, Washington |
Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight is an 1835 seascape painting by the British artist J.M.W. Turner. [1] It is set at the port of Newcastle in the North East of England. Keelmen are unloading coal from the flat-bottomed boats that has brought it up the Tyne River to the ships that will carry it on its onwards journey. The scene is illuminated by a flood of moonlight and the blazing torches of the keelmen . [2]
It was commissioned by the Manchester textile manufacturer. Henry McConnell as a companion piece by another work of Turner's featuring Venice The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore . [3] [4] The painting was displayed at the Royal Academy's 1835 Summer Exhibition at Somerset House. Today it is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.. [5]