Claude Monet
French, 1840­1926
Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint Lazare
1877
Oil on canvas
59.6 x 80.2 cm
Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection, 1933.1158

Trains from this Paris station carried Monet and other Impressionist artists, loaded with canvases, to the countryside to paint landscapes. Cityscapes by these artists showed the most modern aspects of life in Paris, like the new wide boulevards and iron and glass railway stations. Monet made at least twelve paintings of the Saint Lazare station to show how different light on different days changed the way the sky, the steam, and the engines looked both inside and outside the station. How many puffing train engines do you see?