Trains in art

A locomotive or train can play many roles in art, for example:

As the main subject of a painting, sculpture, or photograph
As a work of art in itself in addition to most functional considerations, especially in streamlined steam locomotives and luxury passenger accommodations of the early 20th century, known also as the Machine Age
As a subject for a novel or film
As a metaphor in song or poetry, particularly for physical power or directed movement (physical, romantic or other), as in Fisherman's Blues:

"I wish I was the brakeman

on a hurtling, fevered train

crashing headlong into the heartland

like a cannon in the rain"

In 2008, Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery held an exhibition entitled: "Art in the Age of Steam."

Trains in specific artworks

The following list is in chronological order, oldest to youngest:

Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway, by J. M. W. Turner, 1844
Gnome Watching Railway Train, by Carl Spitzweg, 1848
The Railway Station, by William Powell Frith, 1862
The Travelling Companions, by Augustus Egg, 1862
Lordship Lane Station, by Camille Pissarro, c. 1870
The Railway, by Édouard Manet, 1872
Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, by Claude Monet, c. 1877
Le Pont de l'Europe, by Gustave Caillebotte, 1880
Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley, by Paul Cézanne, 1882–1885
The Lineman, by L A Ring, 1884
The Anxious Journey, by Giorgio de Chirico, 1913
Railroad Sunset, by Edward Hopper, 1929
Time Transfixed, by René Magritte, 1938
Train in Evening and Station in the Forest, by Paul Delvaux, 1957 and 1960

In the United Kingdom the Guild of Railway Artists is a group of painters of railway subjects.

Media related to Trains in art at Wikimedia Commons