Monet s Normandy Train Impressionism in Paris

Museum Gallery

The Chicago Art Institute is currently housing Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare (1877) by Claude Monet. Dimensions of the work are 60.3 × 80.2 cm (23 3/4 × 31 1/2 in.). It is part of the Museum’s Painting and Sculpture of Europe, Gallery 201. It is an oil on canvas done in the Impressionist style, which is a style I find attractive and is the reason I selected this work.

In Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare (1877), Claude Monet captures the energy and movement of a busy train station. The painting is full of life, with people rushing to and fro and a train steaming into the station. The colors are vibrant and the scene is chaotic, yet there is a sense of order and harmony. The composition is well balanced, with the train occupying the center of the painting and the people milling about in the foreground and background—but mostly in the foreground. The overall effect is one of bustling activity and excitement. The lower portion of the painting is empty space (gray) contrasting with the open space in the center above (blue) depicting sky. The colors and use of line are really what give the painting its flavor.

This painting was part of a series of paintings on the same subject that Monet did “for the third Impressionist exhibition, in 1877, probably placing them in the same gallery” (Chicago Art Institute, 2022). What is most interesting in this painting is not the train but rather the effects of steam and light on the frame of the station and the glass. The light, the metal, the steam, it all has a transfixing quality that makes the painting feel magical and ethereal, otherworldly and entrancing.

There is not really any story that goes with the painting—it is simply a representation of a slice of real life. It is the train station in Paris. It is a normal day. Yet Monet makes the ordinary feel extraordinary with his use of colors. He sees the captivating in everyday spaces in an urban setting and tries to capture it in color.

One reason the painting is filled with such magical realism and nostalgia is perhaps that Monet grew up in Normandy, and thus the Normandy Train probably took him back to thoughts of his youth and he was inspired to see wonder and beauty in its arrival (Groom, 2020). Monet was born in Paris in 1840, and he first gained notoriety for his paintings of the French countryside, but around 1877, he turned his attention to the bustling cityscape of Paris, and the train station became one of his favorite subjects. The train station is an image that invites the idea of imagination and travel—a perfect setting for an impressionist (Dombrowski, 2020). Monet was fascinated by the way that light and smoke interacted with the buildings and trains, and he sought to capture this ephemeral quality in his paintings. The Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare is one of the most successful examples of this approach, and it remains one of Monet\'s most beloved paintings.