Landing the Shore End of the Atlantic Cable

A wide oil painting shows a long line of workers wading and hauling a heavy cable across a rocky, sunlit shore toward the sea. On the left, cliffs rise under billowing clouds, while a sailing ship waits in the distance and a crowd of onlookers gathers in the foreground.

Look closer: A small ship with rigging sits at the far right on the horizon, near the end of the cable line.

Artist

Robert Charles Dudley

Date

1866

Medium

Oil on canvas

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

3921 × 2672 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Cyrus W. Field, 1892