At the Coal Face, A Miner Pushing a Tub by Henry Moore, 1942

Label from IWM: Henry Moore is one of the most famous British artists and sculptors of the twentieth century. Having established a reputation for his abstracted reclining figures in the inter-war period, Moore was inspired by scenes of people sheltering in London underground stations during the Second World War. A similarly subterranean mining commission from the War Artists Advisory Committee followed. This drawing depicts a scene at Wheldale Colliery in Castleford, Moore's hometown and the colliery where his father had been employed. Moore focused on the technical difficulties and mundane nature of the task; he knew that despite being unpleasant and arduous, mining was within normal human capacity. This lack of emotional impact is reflected in the largely anonymous miner, illuminated by the lamp hanging from his waist, who almost appears to be part of the wheeled tub that he is pushing. The miner's horizontal body position, the darkness and the horizontal dimensions of the picture emphasise the constricted and claustrophobic environment.

Painting on paper, wax crayons, coloured crayons, pen and ink and wash