Turner excelled at capturing the beauty and mysteries of light. Cool, white moonlight contrasts with warm, yellow and orange firelight. Shimmering reflections animate the water’s still surface.
The setting is the port of Newcastle, England, where coal from inland mines is being loaded onto ships. Coal was used to fuel the factories, mills, railroads, steamships, and other great machines that were transforming Britain during the Industrial Revolution… Here Turner brings the great force of his romantic genius to a common scene of working–class men at hard labor. Although the subject of the painting is rooted in the grim realities of the industrial revolution, in Turner's hands it transcends the specifics of time and place and becomes an image of startling visual poetry.
An almost palpable flood of moonlight breaks through the clouds in a great vault that spans the banks of the channel and illuminates the sky and the water. The heavy impasto of the moon's reflection on the unbroken expanse of water rivals the radiance of the sky, where gradations of light create a powerful, swirling vortex.
To the right, the keelmen and the dark, flat–bottomed keels that carried the coal from Northumberland and Durham down the River Tyne are silhouetted against the orange and white flames from the torches, as the coal is transferred to the sailing ships. To the left, square riggers wait to sail out on the morning tide. Behind these ships Turner suggested the distant cluster of factories and ships with touches of gray paint and a few thin lines. Through the shadowy atmosphere ships' riggings, keels and keelmen, fiery torches, and reflections on the water merge into a richly textured surface pattern.
Aside from the staggering beauty of this work, I was reminded of the expression, “carry coals to Newcastle”. This idiom originating in Britain means an act that is pointless or superfluous, since at the time that this phrase was coined Newcastle was the center of coal distribution in Great Britain.
I was also reminded of this expression upon reading the Rory McIlroy recently spent three weeks working on the shape of his swing. According to the Associated Press in a recent article, the No. 3-ranked McIlroy said he has been hunkered down in a studio — first in Florida, then in New York — for three weeks, just hitting balls at a screen with a modified swing and not even looking at the flight of his shots. He hasn’t liked the shape of his swing for a while, he said Wednesday, and wanted a more robust one that could hold up in the most pressure-filled moments following a number of missed chances this season.
Sorry, Rory, but to the untrained eye of a thirty-handicapper, your swing looks perfect. If I were to teach a young person the golf swing, I would rely on Ben Hogans’ Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, Harvey Penick's Little Red Book: Lessons and Teachings from a Lifetime in Golf, and videos of Rory McIlroy’s golf swing.
I can understand Rory’s frustration with his game in 2024. Despite winning his 6th Harry Vardon trophy for his triumph in the Race to Dubai (formerly the Order of Merit of the European Tour) by virtue of his victory at the DP World Tour Championship last week, his failure to make two putts in the three-foot range at last June's U.S. Open must still sting. I’m the last person to be offering advice concerning this aspect of the game, but perhaps working on the flat stick might be more productive when it comes to Rory’s winning major tournaments in 2025. I’ll be rooting for him.
© 2012-24 R.E. Kelly
AMDG
