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Coalbrookdale by Night

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1801 painting by Philip James de Loutherbourg

Coalbrookdale by Night
ArtistPhilip James de Loutherbourg
Year1801
TypeOil painting
Dimensions68 cm × 107 cm (27 in × 42 in)
LocationScience Museum, London

Coalbrookdale by Night is an oil painting by Philip James de Loutherbourg, from 1801. It is held at the Science Museum, in London.

History and description

The painting depicts the Madeley Wood (or Bedlam) Furnaces, which belonged to the Coalbrookdale Company from 1776 to 1796. The picture has come to symbolize the birth of the Industrial Revolution in the Ironbridge Gorge, Shropshire, England.

Loutherbourg undertook tours of England and Wales during 1786 and 1800, observing industrial activity at the time. Coalbrookdale by Night provides a view of the Bedlam Furnaces in Madeley Dale, downstream along the River Severn from the town of Ironbridge itself.

Professor Brian Lukacher dubbed the picture as "the best known example" of the industrial sublime, a minor genre in romantic picture that specialized in representing industrial settings. In his words, the picture is "at once a celebration of the energy unleashed by a coke-fired blast furnace and an early reckoning with its environmental consequences".

References

  1. "Philip Jacques de Loutherbourg, Coalbrookdale at Night (1801)". Occupational Medicine. Oxford Journals. Archived from the original on 30 April 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  2. "The Early Revolution: Coalbrookdale by Night". netnicholls.com. Images of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  3. "Coalbrookdale by Night by Philip James de Loutherbourg". Art UK. UK. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  4. Eisenman, Stephen; Crow, Thomas E.; Luckacher, Brian; Nochlin, Linda; Phillips, David L.; Pohl, Frances K. (2020). Nineteenth-century art: a critical history (Fifth ed.). London: Thames and Hudson. p. 136. ISBN 9780500294895.
Philip James de Loutherbourg
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