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  Home>Plan Your Visit>Tours, Guides, and Maps>Self-Guided Tours>Audio Stop 206
      

      
      Search Audio Stop 206 Select LanguageEnglishChineseKoreanSpanishJapanese
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 We hover over a flax-yellow body of water lined with ships to our left and right, which are silhouetted against a moonlit, cloud-veiled sky in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes about a third of the way up the composition. The moon hangs to our left of center in the sky, its light reflecting on the clouds in a bright, hourglass shape to create a tunnel-like effect. The sea below turns from a gold color close to us to pale blue along the horizon. To our left, one ship with gray sails is cut off by the edge of the canvas and another, also with gray sails, is situated farther from us. A small, dark rowboat with two passengers moves between them. Light from the windows in buildings along the distant horizon to our left reflect in the water, and another building, a factory, spouts white flame from its chimney. More dark ships line the waterway to our right, their spiky masts black against the sky. Three flames, one orange between two pale yellow fires, flare in the darkness in front of the ship closest to us. The forms of men shoveling coal, crates, and barges are dark silhouettes against the firelight and smoke. More rowboats float among the boats in the distance. Near the lower right corner of the canvas, a broad, flat fragment of wood floats close to us. The hot orange and black on the right side of the painting contrasts with the silvery gray, light blue, and white that fills much of the rest of the composition. The painting was created with thick, blended brushstrokes throughout, giving the scene a hazy look. The texture of some of the brushstrokes is especially noticeable, as where the moon casts white light onto the water and in the clouds. The artist signed a buoy floating to our left with his initials, “JMWT.”
 Joseph Mallord William Turner *Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight*, 1835 El ecologista Joel Fodrie del Instituto de Ciencias Marinas de la Universidad de Carolina del Norte y el curador sénior Franklin Kelly analizan la vívida descripción que hace Turner de la industria y el cambio climático en la Inglaterra del siglo XIX.
 Transcripción de audioNARRADOR: 
En el norte de Inglaterra, a principios del siglo XIX, se usaba el río Tyne para transportar vastas cantidades de carbón extraído de minas cercanas, que salían al mar en ruta hacia Londres. Joseph Mallord William Turner nos muestra hombres que, por la noche, sacan carbón de barcazas de fondo plano y lo cargan en barcos de altos mástiles con destino al mar. Hay nubes de humo de antorchas ardientes que iluminan su trabajo. Aquí está el curador Franklin Kelly:  
FRANK KELLY: 
Me llama la atención de inmediato este notable despliegue de luz de luna. Y no se ve esto solo en el cielo, sino que hay una línea de luz reflejada en el agua que atrae hacia la distancia. La fría luz de la luna y la contrastante luz de esas antorchas establecen de inmediato una especie de ... empujar y jalar visual de nuestra atención.  
NARRADOR: 
Turner tiene una visión romántica, pero el trabajo que tiene lugar en el río en realidad no era pintoresco. 
FRANK KELLY: 
Por supuesto, en la década de 1830, la Revolución Industrial se apoderaba de Inglaterra para cambiarla en forma drástica. ¿Y qué era lo que impulsaba la mayoría de los motores de la Revolución Industrial? El carbón.  
NARRADOR: 
El transporte de carbón por el río Tyne habría tenido impactos ambientales serios y duraderos. 
El profesor Joel Fodrie de la Universidad de Carolina del Norte en Chapel Hill es un ecologista de estuarios y pesca, experto en ríos.
JOEL FODRIE: 
En verdad me impactan actividades como la que sucedía en este cuadro. No tenían datos ni comprensión a largo plazo de los cambios que ahora estamos comenzando a entender. 
Hemos construido puertos, rompeolas y grandes muelles.  Todos son penetrantes y representan cambios muy profundos en la forma y naturaleza de los ríos y estuarios. Son cambios locales agudos, que se producen en todas partes.   
Por eso me impacta el cambio de mentalidad y las cosas que nos importan ahora en términos de salud ambiental, calidad del medio ambiente y modificación humana del planeta.
Nuestras economías son importantes.  Los empleos son importantes, ¡yo miro esta ribera y veo empleos! Al intentar equilibrar esas cosas en realidad parece que estamos sobre el filo delgado de una navaja en estos días.
NARRADOR:
El llamativo cuadro de Turner nos da un vistazo de los comienzos de la Revolución Industrial y plantea preguntas sobre el estado del mundo natural, mientras el medio ambiente continúa su evolución en respuesta a la actividad humana. Visita guiada del Edificio Oeste: Selección destacada
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