A variety of pubs, bars and cafés from Degas, Manet, Meunier, Lesser Ury, Carpentier, Jean Béraud, Sava Šumanović and Malcolm Drummond.
Meunier
Country folk lured by the promise of material goods and wealth, fine clothes and smart carriages, who end up working in coal mines and struggling to stave off poverty.
More secular stories from Belgian coal mines, the Kalevala, Nabi public gardens, family life, to the 12 panels of the Ghent Altarpiece and Japanese woodblock prints.
Meunier’s paintings of the Borinage in Belgium, Breitner’s construction in Amsterdam in the late 19th century, and Maximilen Luce’s of Paris in the early 20th century.
Iron and steel mills and foundries, a printing shop, a lead mine still employing children, and spinners – all relentlessly demanding, without lighter work.
Crowded apartments in Montmartre, the Lower East Side in New York City, smoke in Charleroi and Dortmund, workers’ cottages, and more smoke.
In chiaroscuro, for enlightenment, at the centre of family and friends at dinner, and in special safety lamps carried underground by coal miners.
Paintings of iron and steel production, printing, lead mining, machining a cog wheel, spinning, and developing a photograph.
Bare feet as a sign of rural poverty, among irregular peasant volunteer soldiers, and striking miners. But what about the kissing of feet?
The Sack of Troy, Turner, Vesuvius erupting, an unusual Manet maritime, Vallotton, Paul Nash, Monet, Luce, Signac, Stella and more going up in smoke.
The Eclectic Light Company 