Gare Saint-Lazare (Monet series)

Illustration of the Gare Saint-Lazare in 1868

After working on rural landscapes, Claude Monet returned to Paris in 1877 and made a dozen oil paintings of the Gare Saint-Lazare railway station in Paris. This was Monet's first series of paintings concentrating on a single theme.

After considering working at the Gare du Nord, he sought permission from the director of the Compagnie des Chemins de fer de l'Ouest to paint en plein air, at the Gare Saint-Lazare.

The Impressionist paintings capture the smoky interior of this Paris railway station, in varied atmospheric conditions and from various points of view. The works were in part a response to the criticism of his painting Impression, Sunrise, which was exhibited at the First Impressionist Exhibition in April 1874, and also fashionable depictions of technical progress: the modern steam train and the newly extended iron and glass train shed at the station constructed by engineer Eugène Flachat.

Eight of the paintings were exhibited at the Third Impressionist Exhibition in Paris in April 1877, where they were admired by Émile Zola, who later wrote his 1890 novel La Bête humaine about the railways.

Examples of the works are held by many public collections.

List

Title	Museum	City	Country	Dimensions (cm) (in)	#	Illus.
La Gare Saint-Lazare	Musée d'Orsay	Paris	France	75 cm × 105 cm 30 in × 41 in	W438
La Gare Saint-Lazare, arrivée d'un train	Fogg Art Museum	Cambridge	United States	81.9 cm × 101 cm 32.2 in × 39.8 in	W439
La Gare Saint-Lazare, le train de Normandie	Chicago Institute of Art	Chicago	United States	59.6 cm × 80.2 cm 23.5 in × 31.6 in	W440
La Gare Saint-Lazare	National Gallery	London	UK	53 cm × 72 cm 21 in × 28 in	W441
Le Pont de l'Europe, gare Saint-Lazare	Musée Marmottan Monet	Paris	France	64 cm × 81 cm 25 in × 32 in	W442
Extérieur de la gare Saint-Lazare, effet de soleil	Private collection			60 cm × 81 cm 24 in × 32 in	W443
Extérieur de la gare Saint-Lazare, arrivée d'un train	Private collection			60 cm × 72 cm 24 in × 28 in	W444
Les Voies à la sortie de la gare Saint-Lazare	Pola Museum of Art	Hakone	Japan	60 cm × 80 cm 24 in × 31 in	W445
La Gare Saint-Lazare, vue extérieure	Private collection			60 cm × 80 cm 24 in × 31 in	W446
La Gare Saint-Lazare, vue extérieure	Private collection			64 cm × 81 cm 25 in × 32 in	W447
La Gare Saint-Lazare, les signaux	Lower Saxony State Museum	Hannover	Germany	65 cm × 81 cm 26 in × 32 in	W448
La Tranchée des Batignolles	Würth Collection	Rome	Italy	38 cm × 46 cm 15 in × 18 in	W449

References

External links

• L'histoire par l'image : Le chemin de fer, symbole d'une nouvelle révolution industrielle - Claude Monet, La gare Saint-Lazare