Putting while building a railway c. 1876

Hans Canon painted ‘Putting while building a railway’ during a period of rapid industrial expansion, and there is a tension between the cherubic figures and their heavy labor. Canon playfully explores themes of innocence and industry, class and labor. These infantile bodies seem to symbolize the purity of labor, yet the construction of railways was often tied to exploitation. How might it feel to see this image if you were one of the many anonymous workers whose toil literally laid the tracks? What might it mean to see labor depicted as innocent and untainted? Canon seems to be asking us to consider progress, labor, and the human cost of both. The painting invites us to reflect on the emotional and ethical dimensions of industry and exploitation.