About this work
Monet positioned himself at the terminus of one of the main lines, looking across the platforms. In the foreground, two locomotives are swathed in steam and surrounded by passengers probably waiting to board. The dark angular lines of the roof's iron girders contrast with the random, billowing patterns formed by vapour and smoke — and by including the closed roof at the top of the picture, Monet turned the conventions of landscape upside down: the light and clouds normally associated with an open sky are contained inside a distinctly modern structure made of glass and iron.
The engine itself is cloaked in steam and smoke, rendered less as a symbol of speed and power than as an almost immaterial form, while strong sunlight picks out buildings in the background and bathes the scene in a golden glow.
Dominant blues, grays, and whites evoke the interplay of steam and light throughout.
This was Monet's first series of paintings concentrating on a single theme.
He produced his twelve pictures of the Gare Saint-Lazare during a period of intense activity from January to March 1877,
having gained permission from the director of the Compagnie des Chemins de fer de l'Ouest to paint from the station concourse and beside the track.
He had known the station since childhood, as it was the Paris terminal for trains to Normandy, where he grew up.
Highly celebrated for his paintings of rural and floral scenes, in 1877 Monet directed his artistic eye towards a more industrial landscape — a decision that marked a turning point not only for his own development as an artist, but also for the Impressionists as a whole, who would go on to make stations and shipyards a central motif for the movement.
The Saint-Lazare paintings inaugurated what was to become for Monet an established pattern of painting a specific motif repeatedly to capture atmospheric change — and yet they also represented his last sustained attempt to capture urban life; from this point on, he largely devoted himself to landscapes.
This is a painting for someone who understands that stillness and motion are not opposites. Trains, steam, and smoke convey the concepts of mobility and speed, and the vaporized forms are consistent with Impressionism's credo that matter should appear to be in a constant state of motion — the ever-changing shape and rapid dissipation of steam embodies these characteristics in a way that nothing else can. On a wall, it brings a rare kind of atmospheric depth: the cool silver-blue of the steam reads beautifully against warm plaster or dark panelling, and the composition rewards both a glance from across a room and a close look at Monet
