Claude Monet. 1877 C.E. France. Oil on canvas
The effects of color and light rather than a concern for describing machines in detail. Certain zones, true pieces of pure painting, achieve an almost abstract vision. An ideal setting for someone who sought the changing effects of light, movement, clouds of steam and a radically modern motif.
Artist: Claude Monet
Date: 1877
Medium: Oil on canvas
Movement:
Context:
- Monet wanted to be remembered as an painter of the 'modern' world.
- Monet lived in Argenteuil, a province outside of Paris (rural)
- Monet commuted into Paris via the Gare Saint-Lazare, or the Saint-Lazare Station
- The station was a symbol of modernity and industrialized commuter railways.
- Produced in 1876-1877, just a few years before the first Impressionist exhibition.
- The roads and train stations of Paris had recently been renovated and modernized under Baron Haussmann
- Unusually modern and industrial for Monet; he usually painted water-lilies
- Emphasis on the
Form
- Gritty texture
- Follows a traditional landscape painting
- Trees frame the center of the painting
- Diagonal lines of the roof recede backwards into the painting
- Oil on canvas
Function
- Emphasis on the painting's surface and paint.
- To capture the industrialization and modernization of Paris.
- For Monet to establish himself as a relevant, valuable artist in French society as it industrialized
- Industrialization was such a massive societal shift that it could not go ignored by anyone who felt themselves an engaged member of society.
- To capture a beautiful moment in time in the busy, urban streets of Paris
- Comings and goings by train into Paris -- day-to-day
- Modern bourgeoisie emerging as center of the society
Content
- Locomotive train pulls into the station, under triangular roofing
- Steam dissolves into the air
- Perspective lines and foreshortening used expertly to create the realism of the train
- NO traditional lines or contours; very innovative and atypical modeling.
