impressions of Saint-Lazare train station

A place: the Saint-Lazare station in Paris. A painter: Claude Monet. A time: the 1870s, the first industrial revolution in France. At this time, the painter left for a time the Norman landscapes to settle in Paris. He is interested in modern life and wants to transcribe the essence. A hard worker, he asks permission to settle for a few days under the glbad roof of the Gare Saint-Lazare, an architectural feat, a symbol of this new modern world. He will paint 12 paintings on this theme. Only "Gare Saint-Lazare" is on display today at the Musée d'Orsay. The other paintings are exhibited all over the world.

Reportage: E. de Pourquery / X. Deperthes / A. Fischer: C. Baume / A. Brodin

Strongly criticized at his In the beginning, the Impressionist movement took a long time to find success. Claude Monet, despite serious financial difficulties and the failure of the first two exhibitions devoted to this new pictorial style, decided in April 1877 to present 8 paintings of his series "The station Saint-Lazare" during the third impressionist exhibition. This time, success is at the rendezvous. Emile Zola admired the paintings and was inspired twelve years later when writing "The human beast."

"This machine, that Zola had told in the" human beast ", she was the symbol of the industrial revolution ", recalls Philippe Piguet, one of the descendants of Claude Monet's second wife

Monet and technical progress

Monet was very interested in the society in motion in which he lived, in the technological evolutions related to the first industrial revolution. The Paris station, then the largest in Europe, was a summary of these changes: the mix of metal and locomotive steam, the lights of the city, the announced reign of the machine. "These halls immortalized by Monet reflect the modern design and know-how of the engineers of the time," says Arnaud Bruyelle, SNCF architect at Gare Saint-Lazare. The painter stayed there for several days and realized twelve paintings in different atmospheric conditions and with various points of view. An innovative series that was particularly appreciated by another great painter of modern life, Gustave Caillebotte.

The first series

With "Gare Saint-Lazare", Monet also tried a genre that will then make its international reputation, the series. It is indeed the first time that he works on the same subject at different times of the day. A concept that inspired him some of his greatest masterpieces, such as "Water Lilies", "The Wheels", or "The Cathedrals of Rouen".