Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight

1835

Oil on canvas, 92.3 × 122.8 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington

At night, workers in small boats load coal into tall sailing ships crowded along a quay. Smoke from the work drifts across the moonlit river.

Painted for Henry McConnel of Manchester and shown at the Royal Academy and the Royal Manchester Institution.
Look at the full moon near the center and the orange fires at right; his initials are on the buoy at lower left.
Keelmen were the boatmen who carried coal out to larger ships in shallow barges called keels.
Hard labor and nature share one river at night, each with its own light, and both receive the same care.
Bought by Peter A. B. Widener in 1910 and given to the gallery with the Widener Collection in 1942.