Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare

Monet painted Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare in 1877, the year of the third Impressionist exhibition. He was 37 years old and had just begun to sell paintings through his dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, after a decade of poverty and rejection. The Gare Saint-Lazare paintings, a group of seven canvases showing the interior of the train station, were the first series Monet ever painted, and they established the method he would use for the rest of his career: the same subject observed under different conditions of light and atmosphere. The painting shows the interior of the Gare Saint-Lazare, the main train station for trains to Normandy, in Paris. A locomotive sits under the iron and glass roof of the station, its steam rising into the air. The platform is visible at the left, with figures waiting for the train. The iron roof is painted in blues and grays, with the glass panels letting in a hazy, diffused light. The steam fills the upper half of the canvas, obscuring the roof and dissolving into the light. Monet had asked the station director for permission to paint in the station, and the director, impressed by the painter's persistence, had the trains held and the steam built up so that Monet could paint the effect he wanted. This was not the plein air painting that the Impressionists were known for: it was a staged scene, arranged for the painter's convenience. But the result is one of the most powerful images of industrial Paris in the 1870s. The Gare Saint-Lazare was the station that served the suburbs where Monet and his fellow Impressionists lived and worked. Argenteuil, Asnieres, and Bougival were all on the Normandy line, and the Impressionists rode these trains to reach the rivers and gardens where they painted. The station was also a symbol of modern Paris: it had been rebuilt in the 1850s as part of Haussmann's transformation of the city, and its iron and glass roof was one of the most modern structures in the capital. Monet's decision to paint it was a declaration that modern industrial life was a worthy subject for serious painting. Oil on canvas, 60 by 80 centimeters. Monet painted the steam in thin, translucent layers of white and gray, built over a blue underpainting. The iron roof is painted in sharp, geometric strokes of blue and gray, with the glass panels suggested by shifts in color temperature. The locomotive is painted in dark, opaque strokes of black and brown, with the metal surfaces catching the light from the glass roof. The figures on the platform are barely indicated, painted in a few quick strokes of dark color. The horizontal format and cool palette make this print work well in a living room, office, or study. The blues, grays, and whites pair with white walls, modern furniture, and rooms with an industrial or minimalist design. The 18x24 size is the best choice, as the composition needs width to read. The painting has a modern, energetic quality that suits rooms with a contemporary mood. The painting entered the Art Institute of Chicago's collection in 1933, as part of the Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection. This is a public domain artwork, scanned from the original at the Art Institute of Chicago. We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 18x24 inches, framed or unframed. The image is printed at full resolution with no cropping.