
Jack Savitsky’s Train in Coal Town depicts a coal-fired passenger train traveling between Pottsville and Silver Creek, two well-known coal towns in Pennsylvania. Behind the smoky plume of the locomotive stand a blue-gray coal breaker and eight mill houses — the very houses that make up the painting’s border. Savitsky conveys the sameness and unending work of the company town through his use of repetitive patterning and decorative elements. However, the lively colors and cheerful rural setting also reflect an energetic spirit within the miner community.
- Title
-
Train in Coal Town
- Artist
- Date
- 1968
- Location
- Dimensions
- 31 1⁄4 x 47 3⁄4 in. (79.4 x 121.3 cm.)
- Credit Line
-
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- oil on fiberboard
- Classifications
- Keywords
-
- Landscape – Pennsylvania – Silver Creek
- Architecture – industry – mine
- Landscape – town
- Architecture – vehicle – train
- Object Number
-
1986.65.137
- Palette
- Linked Open Data
- Linked Open Data URI