Art UK has updated its cookies policy. By using this website you are agreeing to the use of cookies. To find out more read our updated Use of Cookies policy and our updated Privacy policy.

Pit Brow Girl

Image credit: National Coal Mining Museum for England

How you can use this image

 

This image is available to be shared and re-used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence (CC BY-NC).

This image can be reproduced in any way apart from any commercial uses.

Wherever you reproduce the image or an altered version of it, you must attribute the original creators (acknowledge the original artist(s), the person/organisation that took the photograph of the work) and any other stated rights holders.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find more images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Download

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

Although the amateur artist Hannah Keen is believed to have made only one mining portrait, her contribution still deserves recognition. Her father, James Keen, was Chairman of the Wigan Coal and Iron Company. The Keen family’s close connection with the industry must have provided her with an obvious source of inspiration. Her portrait of a pit-brow girl is believed to show one of the many female surface workers who were employed at Maypole Colliery during the late nineteenth century. The portrait is also thought to show the influence of Arthur Wasse’s painting of the same subject made three years earlier and the photographs of A. J. Munby. The Coal Mines Act of 1842 banned women and girls of any age from working underground, but in a handful of coal-mining districts women were still able to work on the surface.

National Coal Mining Museum for England

Wakefield

Title

Pit Brow Girl

Date

1895

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 39 x W 29 cm

Accession number

YKSMM: 2004.2736

Acquisition method

gift from Mr William R. Hill, 2004

Work type

Painting

Tags

See a tag that’s incorrect or offensive? Challenge it and notify Art UK.

Help improve Art UK. Tag artworks and verify existing tags by joining the Tagger community.

National Coal Mining Museum for England

Caphouse Colliery, New Road, Overton, Wakefield, West Yorkshire WF4 4RH England

This venue is open to the public. Not all artworks are on display. If you want to see a particular artwork, please contact the venue.
View venue