Description of the picture:
Steel Road – Eduard Manet. 1872-1873. Canvas, oil. 93.3×111.5 cm
The delightful ability to see in the ordinary beautiful, and moreover, to be able to convey this miracle to the viewer. Specifically, such a genius was noted by Eduard Manet.
His painting “Railway”, also referred to in some sources “Station Saint-Lazare”, preparing for an exhibition at the Salon of 1874, along with two other lesser-known works. But it was this painting that was chosen by the commission for the exposition.
It is difficult to determine the genre of the picture – this is both a genre scene and a portrait at the same time. Mane skillfully captures a simple story from life, everyday and mundane, but from this more beautiful. A woman in a beautiful hat sits on a bench, the model for her was the favorite model of the artist Quiz Möran. Through the thick rods of the fence separating the heroines from the train station, we see clubs of steam that mark the arrival of the train. And if this event does not touch the stately lady, then the little girl, in a magnificent white dress, is completely absorbed in what is happening at the station. She tries to take a closer look at the train, so that she even turns away from the viewer. Some contemporaries recognized in the girl the daughter of Manet’s friend, the banker Alfons Hirsch.
The painting “Railway” was another success of the artist. She not only got to the main exhibition of Europe, but was almost immediately bought by a famous opera singer and collector. Then she changed three more owners, until by will of the latter she was transferred to the National Gallery of Art."