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Most early industry was a rural activity, taking place where its raw materials, such as clay, iron and coal, were to be found. The rise of industry coincided with the Romantic movement and the dramatic visual appeal of fire, light and smoke inspired artists like Joseph Wright of Derby, de Loutherbourg and Turner.
Canals and railways allowed industry to move to the cities but the great factories of nineteenth-century Britain were less appealing to artists, though some owners commissioned interesting paintings of them.
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Twentieth-century highlights include L. S. Lowry’s imaginative but pessimistic visions of the urban industrial landscapes, and the memorable shipbuilding paintings of Stanley Spencer, commissioned with other industrial subjects by the war artists’ scheme.
Artworks
A View near Matlock, Derbyshire with Figures Working beneath a Wooden ConveyorPhilip James de Loutherbourg (1740–1812)
Yale Center for British Art
Gloster Aircraft, F.5/34C. E. P. Davis (active 1924–1989)
Museum of Gloucester
Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western RailwayJoseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851)
The National Gallery, London
Industrial SceneJohn Wilson Carmichael (1799–1868)
Nottingham City Museums & Galleries
Gloster Aircraft, E.28/39C. E. P. Davis (active 1924–1989)
Museum of Gloucester
Lorenz HerkomerHubert von Herkomer (1849–1914)
Southampton City Art Gallery
Sailing Ship (Man of War)Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) (follower of)