Claude Monet, The Gare Saint-Lazare

Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris

Monet painted a series of twelve paintings with the same subject. The whole series of the twelve paintings can also be found here.

Claude Monet, Gare Saint-Lazare, 1877
Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Claude Monet, Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, 1877 (1)
Art Institute of Chicago

Claude Monet, Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, 1877
Fogg Museum, Cambridge MA

References

(1) Monet’s Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, online scholarly catalog, cat 16: Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, 1877.

This pigment analysis is based on the work of the scientists at the National Gallery London (1). The overall dark color of this painting is composed of many individual pigments and the different hues are achieved by a greater proportion of one or several pigments of this color.

1 Deep purple shadow of the canopy: red lake in greater quantity mixed with lesser amounts of cobalt blue, cerulean blue, artificial ultramarine, viridian, and emerald green. Traces of ivory black and vermilion are also present.
2 Dark greenish-blue shadow of the canopy: main pigments here are cobalt blue and cerulean blue with smaller amounts of ultramarine, viridian, and emerald green with traces of red lake, vermilion, ivory black and lead white.

3 Bluish swirls of smoke and steam: cobalt blue and cerulean blue mixed with lead white with small amounts of viridian and emerald green and traces of artificial ultramarine and red lake.
4 Mauvish steam: lead white tinted with cobalt blue, vermilion, and red lake.

5 White steam clouds: pure lead white.

6 Red-brown of the canopy: the main component is vermilion mixed with lesser amounts of cobalt blue and cerulean blue, emerald green and viridian, and also very small amounts of a red lake and chrome yellow.
7 The red inner edge of the sloping roof to the right: undiluted red lake.

8 Red outlines of several passengers: pure vermilion
9 Small blue highlights on the locomotives: pure cobalt blue

References

(1) Bomford D, Kirby J, Leighton, J., Roy A. Art in the Making: Impressionism. National Gallery Publications, London, 1990, pp. 166-171.

(2) Roy, A. The Palettes of three Impressionist Paintings, National Gallery Technical Bulletin, Vol 9, 1985, 12-20. Available as pdf.

(1) Bomford D, Kirby J, Leighton, J., Roy A. Art in the Making: Impressionism. National Gallery Publications, London, 1990, pp. 166-171.

(2) Monet’s Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, online scholarly catalog, cat 16: Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, 1877.

(3) Roy, A. The Palettes of three Impressionist Paintings, National Gallery Technical Bulletin, Vol 9, 1985, 12-20. Available as pdf.

Biography of Claude Oscar Monet, Claudemonetgallery.org

Monet Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago A very thorough and interactive catalog of Monet’s works at the Art Institute of Chicago. Contains detailed information on the history, provenance, and technical aspects of the paintings and drawings.