Focus on this artwork and explain the Interpretation.
Scholars have generally seen the Gare Saint-Lazare series as Monet's attempt to depict the industrial age from his perspective. Trains, steam, and smoke convey the concepts of mobility and speed. The vaporized forms are consistent with Impressionism's credo that matter should appear to be in a constant state of motion. Coinciding with Impressionists’ preoccupation with instantaneous and atmospheric change is the ever changing shape and rapid dissipation of steam, a substance that embodies these characteristics in a way that nothing else can. As the critic Jules Janin once wrote: “The poetry of the nineteenth century […] is steam.”Scholars have also proposed that Monet portrayed how time itself was being modernized and industrialized. Industrialization required to the unification and coordination of time, and this unification could be clearly seen at the synchronized train-schedules and precisely timed operations done by switchmen. Monet highlighted the “instant” in painting, showing the standardization of time was the core around which industrialized society revolves.
Impressionist switchmen Impressionism Jules Janin Gare Saint-Lazare