Coalbrookdale by Night explained

Coalbrookdale by Night
Artist:Philip James de Loutherbourg
Year:1801
Type:Oil painting
Height Metric:68
Width Metric:107
Museum:Science Museum
City:London

Coalbrookdale by Night is an 1801 oil painting by Philip James de Loutherbourg.[1]

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.[2] It is held in the collections of the Science Museum in London.

Loutherbourg undertook tours of England and Wales during 1786 and 1800, observing industrial activity at the time.[3] Coalbrookdale by Night provides a view of the Bedlam Furnaces in Madeley Dale, downstream along the River Severn from the town of Ironbridge itself.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Philip Jacques de Loutherbourg, Coalbrookdale at Night (1801) . https://web.archive.org/web/20110430125444/http://occmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/58/5/316.full . dead . 30 April 2011 . . . 2 December 2015 .
  2. Web site: The Early Revolution: Coalbrookdale by Night . Images of the Industrial Revolution in Britain . netnicholls.com . 2 December 2015 .
  3. Web site: Coalbrookdale by Night by Philip James de Loutherbourg . . UK . 2 December 2015 .