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Edouard Manet (artist) French, 1832 - 1883 The Railway, 1873 oil on canvas Overall: 93.3 x 111.5 cm (36 3/4 x 43 7/8 in.) framed: 113 x 132.7 x 5.4 cm (44 1/2 x 52 1/4 x 2 1/8 in.) Gift of Horace Havemeyer in memory of his mother, Louisine W. Havemeyer 1956.10.1 |
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While the impressionists were preparing for their first exhibition, Manet was completing his submissions to the 1874 Salon, which included this painting. At that time the Gare Saint-Lazare, where the bourgeoisie embarked for popular recreation spots like Chatou and Argenteuil, was the busiest train station in Paris. The station's ambitious bridge, which carried six streets across the rail yard, was a familiar landmark, but for Manet it is an almost invisible background. Only the iron fences and the steam billowing from an unseen engine locate his enigmatic figures. Opposites in blue and white, the woman faces us with a direct but indecipherable stare while the child turns away.
The painting’s title—Manet called it simply “Railroad”—disturbed Salon audiences. They had trouble matching it with the subject, which itself was hard to define. The woman, close to the front of the picture plane, seems to engage us. Her expression, though, provides no hint of her story, only detachment and ambiguity. It did not help that for many contemporaries, Manet’s style, with its broad, flat areas of color juxtaposed without transitional tones, appeared unfinished.
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