Steenkoolschuiten in Engeland 1871 - 1906

This is Pieter de Josselin de Jong's sketch of coal barges in England. Dark mounds fill the barges in the foreground, while in the background, looming industrial chimneys punctuate the horizon. The coal itself—black, dense, and energy-rich—speaks volumes. Since antiquity, darkness has symbolized the chthonic, the hidden, and the unconscious. Coal as a symbol carries this lineage, now intertwined with the industrial age's hunger for progress. Think of earlier depictions of Hades, the lord of the underworld, a dark figure associated with wealth and subterranean resources. The chimneys evoke images of ancient watchtowers. Like the Tower of Babel, these structures reach towards the heavens, bearing witness to humanity’s ambition. This relentless drive stirs deep-seated anxieties, a Faustian bargain where progress shadows destruction. The scene holds a melancholic tension—a longing for progress shadowed by a latent sense of doom, capturing the spirit of an era grappling with its own transformative power.