Home/Symbols/Steam from the trainSteam from the train SymbolismChange, motion, and the ephemeral nature of modern life; the railway’s presence felt as vapor.Common ThemesThe modern lens: urban life & speedClass distinction & status displayMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Lasting vs. fleeting (ephemerality)Medium reflexivity (art about art)The gaze & being looked atPublic space vs. private spaceIndustrial sublimeArtworks Featuring This SymbolThe RailwayÉdouard Manet (1873)Manet’s The Railway is a charged tableau of <strong>modern life</strong>: a composed woman confronts us while a child, bright in <strong>white and blue</strong>, peers through the iron fence toward a cloud of <strong>steam</strong>. The image turns a casual pause at the Gare Saint‑Lazare into a meditation on <strong>spectatorship, separation, and change</strong> <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[3]</sup>.
