Monet and Seurat: Two Visions of 19th-Century France

Introduction

In their artworks Train in the Countryside (c. 1872) and Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grande Jatte (1884), Claude Monet and Georges Seurat, respectively, present two very different views of life in 19th-century France. To identify these differences and the techniques and motifs that each painting offers to the viewer, this paper analyzes both works and reviews the relevant literature, followed by a summary of key findings in the conclusion.

Monet's 'Train in the Countryside': Technique and Motifs

The trail of smoke left by the locomotive in Train in the Countryside describes a Golden Section arc that is visually appealing even to viewers who do not understand its compositional significance. The picture is divided into a pattern of four general horizontal and vertical quadrants: the sky in the background, the forest in the foreground of the train trestles establishing a horizon line, and the shadow-covered meadow in the foreground populated by multiple strollers — some carrying umbrellas — broken up only by the verticality of a prominent tree on the left side of the canvas. The scene appears to extend to infinity in both directions but has been cropped to present a curved sense of direction. Realistic proportion is maintained throughout. According to the Musée d'Orsay, "At a technical level, the tones of a restricted palette, homogeneous and vividly contrasted, are placed in broad areas according to a simplified distribution of light and shade, rather similar from a tonal point of view to the early photographs" (Monet, 2015, para. 2).

Practically devoid of vivid color, Train in the Countryside was one of several paintings Monet completed featuring steam-engine locomotives and trains in motion, which were among his favorite motifs (Strieter, 1999). In this particular work, however, the locomotive itself is hidden behind the forest growth; its presence is indicated only by the trail of smoke it leaves behind, while only the train cars remain visible. In sum, the painting illustrates the contrast between the leisurely summer days enjoyed by the French during the latter half of the 19th century — made possible in large part by the economic benefits of the Industrial Revolution and the additional disposable income it provided to ordinary citizens — and the powerful engines of growth that fueled this newfound affluence (Strieter, 1999).

Although later artworks would celebrate the functional beauty of Industrial Revolution-era machinery, Monet was working before that aesthetic sensibility had fully emerged, and some modern authorities suggest this is why the locomotive remains hidden. As one curator explains, "The machine, which had not yet achieved the status of an aesthetic object, is screened here by dense trees" (Monet, 2015, para. 3).

Conclusion

Painted before the Impressionist school had fully established its defining hallmarks, Train in the Countryside (c. 1872) by Claude Monet was an early effort to depict the social changes taking place as a result of the Industrial Revolution. This painting was part of a series in which Monet used steam-driven locomotives and carriages in motion as his subject matter. By contrast, the only action taking place in Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grande Jatte comes from a restless monkey — which, together with the portrayal of the formally clad figures and the artist's pointillist technique, created a sensation when the work was first exhibited.

References

Austrum, D. C. (1998, October). Thursday and Friday afternoons on the bank of Tiffany Creek: A re-creation of Seurat's "La Grande Jatte." School Arts, 98(2), 38–41.

Floyd, J. (2009, Winter). Art of making art. The Sondheim Review, 16(2), 11–13.

Monet. (2015). Claude Monet "Train in the Countryside." Musée d'Orsay. Retrieved from

Strieter, T. W. (1999). Nineteenth-century European art: A topical dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.