The Gare Saint-Lazare

The Gare Saint-Lazare by Claude Monet is one of 12 paintings completed by the artist of the same location, a commuter train station called The Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris. During this time, he moved himself from Argenteuil to a small apartment near the station while he was working on these paintings. Monet lived from 1840 to 1926 and is considered to be the father of impressionism, the term deriving from his painting entitled Impression, Sunrise. Monet often painted the same location many times in an attempt to capture the differences of changing light and seasonal variances. He was also very fond of painting outside of studios, and urged his contemporaries to do the same.

The framing of the picture sets out very symmetrically, using the roof of the train station and its walls to encase the picture. The actual subject of the painting is asymmetrically balanced; one train is leaving the station while another pulls in. Both trains are on the left, creating a darker and heavier left side. The left is also full of heavier objects with bigger framework, while the right has smaller objects, mostly people. The train in the center, the one that is arriving, has the most emphasis

The many lines cause the eye of the viewer to move throughout the work. The railroad tracks that start at the bottom of the page pull the viewer to the background of the painting, where trains and tiny people mull about. The pillars holding up the roof bring the eyes up, and the scaffolding at the top draws you back, only to be pulled down again by the cascade of rising smoke. The station roof and rafters also create a frame for the picture, a darker area full of browns and blacks, that pushes the viewer to look at the seen below. The lines lend themselves to the space and perspective of this painting. The lines of the scaffolding give the roof depth, and the shadows inside give the bright exterior more