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Dudley This hazy, horizontal composition is divided into two distinct sections: a warm-color toned foreground and a cool-color toned background. Soft edged silhouettes define items in both the foreground and background. Items in the foreground appear to converge to a central point in the visual center, occupied by a relatively empty space. In the immediate central foreground, a waterway is apparent - as evidenced by reflections. Left of center, dark toned buildings rise from the water and contain tall smoking chimneys. The smoke is carried further to the left, into the sky, and eventually off the composition. A barely visible boat appears to be moored in near the buildings. Right of center, there is evidence of more human activity. Several packet boats are moored against the shoreline. The boat closest to the viewer contains the letters M and __, and slants diagonally towards several other boats with figures that are barely visible. On the extreme right, several lightly colored figures tend a packhorse. In the middle ground, immediately behind the moored boats, is a triangular shaped area in vivid oranges and reds. Tall chimney-like shapes are defined by brighter contrasting colors - the strongest of which appears to be in a pale yellow tone. Colors diminish and move upwards, fading into the cooler colors of the background. The background is defined with misty, cool silhouetted forms that are further defined by a lighter sky. Left of center, immediately above a smoking chimney, a tall church spire stands above the surrounding distant buildings. Right of center, on a hill formation, there are ruins of a castellated structure with catching reflected light. Background Dudley, an ancient market town near Tipton in the Midlands, was a large and active industrial town in the 19th Century. The town once contained a Benedictine Priory and Castle, but both were in ruins by 1830, the time of Turner's visit. Viewing Dudley from the vantage point of the canal basin afforded Turner sights of its past and present legacies, all illuminated by the fires of the coal furnaces in the middle ground. The fires hot glow is reinforced due to an evening representation. Present, as pictured in the warm colored foreground, contains evidence of the industrial activities of Dudley. Canal boats are active in the loading of goods from their surrounds. Coal furnaces are active with their glowing fires. Industrial buildings and limekilns are busy with their smoking chimneystacks. The viewer's eye moves from left to right, and back again, following the activities on the water's perimeter. Reflections and cast light stabilize the composition. Past is pictured in the cool colored silhouettes of the ruined priory and castle battlements, towering above the industrial activity below. A medieval church steeple looms in the farthest background, a symbol of the light of a penitent and peaceful distant past. Diagonally placed to the right, lights of a fiery present contrast in motion filled activity. Turner fills this image with symbols representing faith, tradition and current industrial activities. Riveted to the spot, one continues gazing at the interesting landscape…The chimneys of many remote iron smelting furnaces are now distinctly to be seen. The fires which spout upwards from their tops are no longer rendered comparatively dim by the brighter glare of sunshine. As the obscurity increases, these fires all begin to brighten the view, and when darkness finally prevails, the lights resemble stars reflected from the surface of a dark lake spread out before you…In addition to the fires of the furnaces, the countless heaps of blazing coals, ignited for the purpose of being reduced to coke, flash up at intervals over he adjacent fields. The Dudley Port Furnace and other iron complexes are iron works”…themselves, are, in every possible instance, situated on the banks of a canal, in order to facilitate the transit both of materials and of the metal.” Dudley…”abounds in mines of coal, iron, stone and limestone which furnaces employment for a great number of the inhabitants. The manufactures are iron, nails, glass and fire irons. In 1801, the populations amounted to 8,000 and upwards; and in 1811 to 13,925, but it has increased rapidly since that time.”
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