Comments on: Manet’s The Railway /blog/549/manets-the-railway/ Our Thoughts on Teaching & Technology Sun, 13 Feb 2011 03:38:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.3 By: Pam Swift /blog/549/manets-the-railway/comment-page-1/#comment-42886 Pam Swift Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:43:27 +0000 http://smarthistory.org/blog/?p=549#comment-42886 Before listening to your video, I wanted to have some time with the work and this is what strikes me: there is something so contemporary here about the gaze of the girl and the fact that, along with her challenging presence, the blue bow seem to be the true subject of this "portrait". I'm also seeing a statement about development - two girls, one free to wear no sleeves, and one well-covered up; childhood's freedom contrasted with the strictures of growing up female in the late 19th century. What's curious is the small child's upswept hair, looking like it belongs to a much older person, and the young woman's free-flowing locks, which lend a complexity to the contrast between the two figures. Perhaps in this era her lack of a hairstyle might indicate that she is a young teenager and allowed to wear her hair down. Then, the anonymous child on the right is looking out from a kind of prison - holding the bars thereof - while the adolescent girl has accepted her hemmed-in status, but has transcended it through her candid, unwavering gaze. This is a gaze that reminds me of Manet's Olympia - just who is looking at who, here? Lastly, I'm finding myself almost giddy over the blue plaid bow. And by placing the girls in front of what may be a fountain, they become even more the focus of the scene. The spraying waters may explain why the younger girl is gazing in that direction. But on second look, it seems wonderful that one cannot quite tell what the white fuzzy shape is really meant to represent, or even that Manet was particularly interested in letting us in on it being any particular thing, i.e. a fountain, at all. The more I look at it, the more it seems to dissolve into a cloud shape, a dust cloud, perhaps, but a shape that refuses to be named. As I look back at the title, I realize that the cloud is most probably a steam cloud, remaining after a train has passed by - of course. They are, then, near a train line, and the commotion is perhaps enrapturing, or at least mildly capturing, the small child. The other child has other interests - literate ones - and a life of her own, as adolescents tend to do. And they are moneyed, which, I suppose, helps bring us the gorgeous colors that their outfits include - those blues... Finally, I am enjoying how the adolescent girl is holding what appear to be not one book, but two, along with her pet dog. Before listening to your video, I wanted to have some time with the work and this is what strikes me: there is something so contemporary here about the gaze of the girl and the fact that, along with her challenging presence, the blue bow seem to be the true subject of this “portrait”. I’m also seeing a statement about development – two girls, one free to wear no sleeves, and one well-covered up; childhood’s freedom contrasted with the strictures of growing up female in the late 19th century. What’s curious is the small child’s upswept hair, looking like it belongs to a much older person, and the young woman’s free-flowing locks, which lend a complexity to the contrast between the two figures. Perhaps in this era her lack of a hairstyle might indicate that she is a young teenager and allowed to wear her hair down. Then, the anonymous child on the right is looking out from a kind of prison – holding the bars thereof – while the adolescent girl has accepted her hemmed-in status, but has transcended it through her candid, unwavering gaze. This is a gaze that reminds me of Manet’s Olympia – just who is looking at who, here?

Lastly, I’m finding myself almost giddy over the blue plaid bow. And by placing the girls in front of what may be a fountain, they become even more the focus of the scene. The spraying waters may explain why the younger girl is gazing in that direction. But on second look, it seems wonderful that one cannot quite tell what the white fuzzy shape is really meant to represent, or even that Manet was particularly interested in letting us in on it being any particular thing, i.e. a fountain, at all. The more I look at it, the more it seems to dissolve into a cloud shape, a dust cloud, perhaps, but a shape that refuses to be named. As I look back at the title, I realize that the cloud is most probably a steam cloud, remaining after a train has passed by – of course. They are, then, near a train line, and the commotion is perhaps enrapturing, or at least mildly capturing, the small child. The other child has other interests – literate ones – and a life of her own, as adolescents tend to do. And they are moneyed, which, I suppose, helps bring us the gorgeous colors that their outfits include – those blues…

Finally, I am enjoying how the adolescent girl is holding what appear to be not one book, but two, along with her pet dog.

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