The Gare Saint Lazare, 1876
huile sur toile. Paris
Musée d'Orsay
From cartage.org.lb
After his return to France from London, Monet lived from 1871-78 at Argenteuil, on the Seine near Paris. In January 1877 he rented a small flat and a studio near the Gare St-Lazare, and in the fourth Impressionist exhibition which opened in April of that year, he exhibited seven canvases of the railway station.
This painting is one of four surviving canvases representing the interior of the station. Trains and railways had been depicted in earlier Impressionist works (and by Turner in his 'Rain, Steam and Speed'), but were not generally regarded as aesthetically palatable subjects.
Monet's exceptional views of the Gare St-Lazare resemble interior landscapes, with smoke from the engines creating the same effect as clouds in the sky. Swift brushstrokes indicate the gleaming engines to the right and the crowd of passengers on the platform.
(Senex Magister at hoocher.com)
The Gare Saint-Lazare, Arrival of a Train, 1877
Current Loc Harvard Art Museum/Fogg Museum Cambridge, Ma.
Source Harvard Art Museum/Fogg Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Monet eventually found that by painting subjects repeatedly--at different times of the day, during different seasons, and under varying light conditions--he could best practice the Impressionist emphasis on light and atmosphere.
Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare is one of seven paintings Monet made of the famous Paris train station that served the suburbs along the Seine valley. A completed example of modern iron-frame-and-glass architecture, the station was an enormous vault filled with steam and bustling with movement. Using rapid, often sketchlike, brush strokes, Monet captured the light as it poured through the glass roof and mixed with the whirling clouds of steam. Despite its bold style, the painting is a significant example of the Impressionist focus on city life, as seen in the architectural environment and the train itself.
Later in his career, Monet would largely abandon urban views in favor of depicting the undisturbed world of nature.
(Senex Magister at hoocher.com)