Gare St. Lazare

claude monet's depiction of this train station is an astonishing composition in which the hard-edged discs of the railroad signals hover above a rapidly scribbled swirl of blue and rose clouds of steam, with scrolled white edges, while the sketchy, angular drawing of the tracks and buildings provides contrast. the flat, opaque circle of the largest signal, placed dead center and thickly painted, is so insistent that it turns the picture into a near-abstraction.[7] the gare saint-lazare piece was shown at the third impressionist exhibition. the gare saint-lazare is far different than monet's previous paintings of harbors, boats and oceans that viewers had seen before. the gare saint-lazare series of paintings lead the viewers through a tour of the train station in different points of the day. ?monet exemplifies the modern life, in all its chaos and instability,?[8] the steam coming from the trains creates a way of dissolving the train and showing the impressionistic style of blending colors and light. everything dissipates with the steam of the train and turns into a flurry of blended colors. as said by émile zola, ?monet is able to turn a normally dirty and gritty place into a peaceful and beautiful scene?you can hear the trains rumbling in, see the smoke billow up under the huge roofs?that is where painting is today?our artists have to find the poetry in train station, the way their fathers found the poetry in forests and rivers.?[9] ?monet's work on the gare saint-lazare is unparalleled in its evocation of steam and the smoke-filled station. in spite of the impressionist style, the work reproduces accurately the topography of the area, even allowing one to deduce the precise point where the artist was standing while painting. this is the first time an artist had showed a single theme through a series of variations?[10]