![]() Confined to a narrow space backed by the black bars of an iron fence and isolated by clouds of steam sent up from a train passing below, Manet's two models are enigmatic presences. Advances in industrial technology and train travel, intrinsic to most contemporary depictions of the site, remain in Manet's painting the almost invisible background for a genre depiction of a woman and child. The Gare Saint–Lazare, in 1873 the largest and busiest train station in Paris, is unseen in this painting. A few details can be made out beyond the fence, including a stone-gray building with two wooden doors to our left and a bridge along the right edge. A plume of steam fills much of the space beyond the black fence, which spans the width of the painting and extends off the top edge. A bunch of green grapes lies on the low wall to our right. She raises her left hand to grasp the bar of the fence she faces. ![]() The girl’s blond hair is pulled up and tied with a black ribbon. The girl wears a sleeveless white, knee-length dress belted with a marine-blue sash tied in a large bow at her back. Her navy-blue dress is accented with white piping on the skirt, collar, and sleeves, and has three large, white buttons down the front and her black hat is adorned with two red poppies and a daisy. Her long auburn hair falls down over her shoulders. ![]() The woman looks directly at us with dark eyes as she holds an open book, a closed red fan, and a sleeping brown and white puppy in her lap. To our left, a young woman sits facing us on a low stone wall at the base of the vertical, black bars of an iron fence and a young girl stands facing away from us to our right in this horizontal painting. ![]()
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