Green path

FIRST there is Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Then Versailles. Then will come Chartres, Caen…

In just ten years, between 1835 and 1846, the first rail transport network was created, crossing Normandy and Brittany, starting from the capital. The aptly named Compagnie des chemins de fer de l’Ouest also opened the way to Rennes from 1844. This company expanded in 1855, merging with other companies, broadening the horizon to Rouen, Le Havre, Cherbourg, Fécamp. Grateful, Claude Monet, who had lived between Le Havre, Paris and Giverny, was astonished by the encounter between the unchanging landscape and the intrepid surge of progress. If one can barely make out the heavy coal locomotive spitting out its white and grey cloud, the long line of double-decker wagons can be glimpsed between the tall, curious trees. The past merger of the various railway companies in the region led to a great eclecticism in the models of carriages, some of which only existed in rare examples. The painter seems to be surprised by this new artificial horizon, drawn high between the pale and vaporous sky and the heavy meadow bordered by a dark massif, whose summit the train touches. Still far from the audacities of Impressionism that would not come until a few years later, Monet fixes his gaze on the contrast of light and dark. A small group of characters, mothers with their parasols, children all white and men resting in the shade, seem to be waving to those on the train who are only passing by. Soon photography will take over to capture the event in progress, which will continue to accelerate. Monet, himself, will take refuge in Giverny (Eure), lulled by the languor of the Seine and the motionless magic of his garden. Grace of the slowness of the solar flowers and the crystalline water lilies.