Image: public domain, courtesy of Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

The Railway

Édouard Manet, 1873

A woman with a sleeping puppy on her lap sits by an iron fence, while a girl watches the trains below. The scene is near the Saint-Lazare station in Paris, and a white cloud of steam is the only sign of a train.

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Did you know?

The woman is Victorine Meurent, Manet's favourite model, and this was the last time he painted her.
The girl was the daughter of Alphonse Hirsch, a neighbour whose studio was right across from Manet's.
Manet's own studio was nearby on the rue de Saint-Pétersbourg; visitors said it shook when trains passed.
Look for the bunch of green grapes resting on the stone ledge at the right.
Besides the sleeping puppy, the woman has an open book and a closed red fan in her lap.
At the Paris Salon of 1874 the picture puzzled visitors, and cartoonists made fun of it.

About the artist

Édouard Manet (1832–1883) was born in Paris and worked there all his life.

A bold pioneer of modern painting and a close friend of the Impressionists, he is famous for Luncheon on the Grass, Olympia and A Bar at the Folies-Bergère.

As a teenager he sailed to Rio de Janeiro as a cadet on a training ship, and the sea and boats remained among his favorite subjects.

Édouard Manet ›

Where it is today: Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington · Museum page