The Railway by Eduard Manet, Art Postcard

The painting refers to the Gare Saint–Lazare, in 1873 the largest and busiest train station in Paris which is unseen in this painting. 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. The woman is Victorine Meurent, Manet's favourite model in the 1860s, and the child was the daughter of a fellow painter who allowed Manet to use his garden to create The Railway.The girl wear a white dress trimmed with a blue bow with hair bound by a narrow black ribbon. The woman is dressed in dark blue trimmed with white , the hair with flowing tresses under a black hat.