A View of Murton Colliery near Seaham, County Durham
Date:
1843
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
24 × 36 1/8 inches (61 × 91.8 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Label on verso, upper center: “established 1876 | The Fine Art Society Ltd | 148 New Bond St London W1Y OJT | No. 1163 Date September 1971 | A View of the Colby Ingleton Colliery | Painted to commemorate the opening of | the colliery in 1843. | James Wilson Carmichael, 1800 - 1868”; upper right: “To be collected by Pitt & Scott | Paul Mellon, Esq. | from The Fine Art Society Ltd | 148 New Bond St London W1Y OJT | telephone 016295116”
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Europe | United Kingdom | England | Murton | Seaham | Durham
Currently On View:
On view
Exhibition History:
In a New Light: 500 Years of British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2025-04-01 - 2026-01-30)
Publications:
Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 48-49, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
In the nineteenth century, coal mining powered Britain’s rapid industrialization, which in turn drove momentous social and environmental changes. Carmichael’s painting celebrates the opening of Murton Colliery (or coal mine) in the northeast of England. At first glance, his subject appears rustic, almost a natural part of the landscape: a vision at odds with the dirty reality of the business. The bucolic stream would have in fact been formed by water pumped from the mine. The affable-looking men resting nearby with their pickaxes are “sinkers,” who would have excavated the pits at great risk to their safety. In the distance, women, some carrying their children, comb the ground for discarded coal to fend off the deprivations of rural poverty. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2025