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)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.12
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
