Trains in art explained

Criteria

A locomotive or train can play many roles in art, for example:

• As the main subject of a painting, sculpture, or photograph
• As a work of art in itself in addition to most functional considerations, especially in streamlined steam locomotives and luxury passenger accommodations of the early 20th century, known also as the Machine Age
• As a subject for a novel or film
• As a metaphor in song or poetry, particularly for physical power or directed movement (physical, romantic (phallic) or other), as in Fisherman's Blues:

"I wish I was the brakeman

on a hurtling, fevered train

crashing headlong into the heartland

like a cannon in the rain"

In 1978, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris held the exhibition "Les Temps des Gares" with the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the National Railway Museum in York, and the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology in Milan.

In 2008, Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery held an exhibition entitled: "Art in the Age of Steam."

Trains in specific artworks

The following list is in chronological order, oldest to youngest:

• Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway, by J. M. W. Turner, 1844
• The Berlin-Potsdam Railway, by Adolph von Menzel, 1847
• Gnome Watching Railway Train, by Carl Spitzweg, 1848
• The Railway Station, by William Powell Frith, 1862
• The Travelling Companions, by Augustus Egg, 1862
• Lordship Lane Station, by Camille Pissarro, c. 1870
• The Railway, by Édouard Manet, 1872
• Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, by Claude Monet, c. 1877
• Le Pont de l'Europe, by Gustave Caillebotte, 1880
• Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley, by Paul Cézanne, 1882 - 1885
• The Lineman, by L A Ring, 1884
• , by Umberto Boccioni, 1911^[1]
• The Anxious Journey, by Giorgio de Chirico, 1913
• Railroad Sunset, by Edward Hopper, 1929
• Time Transfixed, by René Magritte, 1938
• Rolling Power, by Charles Sheeler, 1939^[2]
• Night Train (1947), Train in Evening (1957), Station in the Forest (1960) and The Sacrifice of Iphigenia (1968), by Paul Delvaux
• Horse and Train, by Alex Colville, 1954^[3]
• The Sources of Country Music, by Thomas Hart Benton, 1975^[4]
• Jim Beam - J.B. Turner Train, by Jeff Koons, 1986^[5]
• Brick Train, by David Mach, 1997

Artists specialising in trains

In the United Kingdom the Guild of Railway Artists is a group of painters of railway subjects.

See also

• Bridges in art
• Landscape art
• Marine art

Further reading

• Art in the Age of Steam, Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool, 10–18 April 2008
• "Les Temps des Gares." Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou Centre de Creation Industrielle. 1978.
• Painting trains: Full steam ahead, Tom Lubbock, The Independent, 30 April 2008, pp. 12–13
• Tomoki Akimaru, "Cézanne and the Steam Railway (1)～(7)", 2012

Notes and References

1. Web site: Umberto Boccioni. States of Mind I: The Farewells. 1911 | MoMA. The Museum of Modern Art. November 10, 2022.
2. News: New SF exhibit captures that other era when Americans were obsessed with new technology. April 4, 2018. The Mercury News. November 10, 2022.
3. Web site: Alex Colville, Horse and Train, 1954. Art Canada Institute - Institut de l’art canadien. November 10, 2022.
4. Web site: Thomas Hart Benton mural depicts country music history. J. J.. Perry. The Herald-Times. November 10, 2022.
5. Web site: Jeff Koons, Jim Beam—J.B. Turner Train, 1986. whitney.org. November 10, 2022.