Los Carboneros (The Coal Barges), a painting from 1905 by Juan Martínez Abades, is temporarily on view embedded in the permanent collection at Museo Casa Natal de Jovellanos in Gijón as an invited guest artwork.

On loan from the BBVA Collection, this oil-on-canvas painting is a fascinating smaller version of another work with the same title which the artist had made the previous year. Now on show alongside each other in the museum, both works depict a scene of coal being loaded onto a cargo ship in the old docks in Gijón. As such, it is an invaluable visual record of one of the industrial activities behind the growth of the city, of which little evidence remains today, thus also giving it significant documentary and historical value.

Thanks to this collaboration, it is possible to see the two works together for the very first time, enabling a dialogue that sheds new light on one of the museum’s most iconic works while at once offering insights into the creative process of Martínez Abades, widely considered one of the maximum exponents of fin-de-siècle naturalism in Asturias.