The Railway Édouard Manet (1832-1883)
Édouard Manet – The Railway
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Painter: Édouard Manet
Location: National Gallery of Art, Washington.
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Manet had an amazing talent for capturing seemingly ordinary scenes from everyday life and drawing other people’s attention to them. People engaged in everyday life, faces that one encounters just by walking down the street. Many of Manet’s works simply shout - "Why do you need paintings, look around and see." "The Railroad" is one of these, a surprisingly light and simple painting. It shows a young girl sitting on the edge of a rail fence and a little girl peering over the rail.
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Description of Eduard Manet’s painting "The Railway
Manet had an amazing talent for capturing seemingly ordinary scenes from everyday life and drawing other people’s attention to them. People engaged in everyday life, faces that one encounters just by walking down the street.
Many of Manet’s works simply shout - "Why do you need paintings, look around and see." "The Railroad" is one of these, a surprisingly light and simple painting. It shows a young girl sitting on the edge of a rail fence and a little girl peering over the rail. They may be sisters - or the girl may be a governess walking with her child. Either way, they are looking in different directions - you can’t see the girl’s face, but the girl is looking directly into the viewer’s face, as if he has just called out to her, and she is not happy to be torn away from the book. Maybe it’s about love. Maybe it’s about magical adventures.
Maybe it’s about simple ordinary life or about the thrilling adventures of some famous detective. In the arms of a girl sleeping a little puppy, the book is open in the middle. It is necessary to look away from the picture - and it seems that the girl went back to reading.
The girl is busy with other things. Standing on tiptoes, leaning forward, she looks behind the fence, at the railroad, where a train is arriving in a cloud of smoke and steam. Maybe she wants to go on a journey and find amazing adventures and good friends.
Perhaps she has never ridden a train and longs for it-or perhaps, on the contrary, she has and is indulging in sweet memories. Her hands are on the bars. Her head is slightly tilted - stubbornly, attentively. What for her older friend is only simple reality-a gray reality that can and should be traded for the reality of a book-for herself is a miracle, a mesmerizing fairy tale worth neglecting to read for. And the puppy sleeps. All he wants is people and a bone.
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To her right stands a young girl, positioned slightly behind and to the side of the seated woman. The child’s posture is one of gentle interaction; she reaches out with a delicate hand towards the womans hair, seemingly attempting to adjust it. Her dress is light and airy, in shades of white and blue, contrasting sharply with the darker tones of the woman’s clothing. This visual distinction may signify generational difference or perhaps a contrast between formality and innocence.
The background is blurred and indistinct, dominated by vertical lines that suggest the railway tracks and surrounding structures. A sense of movement pervades this area; figures are visible in the distance, rendered as vague shapes, implying the bustle of activity associated with train travel. The light appears diffused, creating a hazy atmosphere that softens the edges of the scene and contributes to an overall feeling of transience.
Subtleties within the painting suggest deeper thematic concerns. The woman’s somber expression and formal attire might allude to societal constraints or personal burdens. Her preoccupation with something outside the frame could symbolize a disconnection from her immediate surroundings, perhaps reflecting anxieties about change or loss associated with the burgeoning era of industrialization and rapid travel. The childs gesture of tenderness offers a counterpoint to this sense of melancholy, hinting at hope or familial connection amidst uncertainty. The railway itself serves as a powerful symbol – representing progress, modernity, but also separation and potential departure. The blurred background reinforces this idea of fleeting moments and the impermanence of human experience within the context of an increasingly mechanized world.