Compare and Contrast

Savannah Goldstein p.

Mont Sainte-Victoire vs. The Saint-Lazare Station

The Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1902-1904, was created oil on canvas by Paul Cezanne,
creating a view from the Mont Sainte-Victoire mountain in just one painting, one
perspective. The painting makes it difficult to understand just how far away the mountain
lies, however the peak can dominate a landscape and command our attention, filling our
eyes and mind. An actual photograph of the mountain itself can be seen from many
different points of view and often in relationship to a constantly changing cast of other
elements from foreground, to trees,bushes, buildings and bridges, to fields and quarries.
From the photograph, Cezanne was able to extract a subgroup of over two-dozen
paintings and watercolors to create a view he thought was most beautiful and aweing.
Claude Monets oil on canvas Saint-Lazare Station, 1877, depicts one of the passenger
platforms of the Gare Saint-Lazare, one of Pariss largest and busiest train terminals.
The painting is not so much a single view of a train platform, it is rather a component in
larger project of a dozen canvases which attempts to portray all facets of the Gare
Saint-Lazare. The mixing of themes in this piece includes the play of light filtered
through the smoke of the train shed, the billowing clouds of steam, and the locomotives
that dominate the site. What prevails here is really the effects of colour and light rather
than a concern for describing machines or travellers in detail, certain places, true pieces
of pure painting, achieve an almost abstract vision.
Photography has been changing the way artists have been creating their work for years,
however some would even say that photography killed traditional painting styles.
Instead of trying to copy reality, which a photograph could do much better, artists
experiment with color, lighting, mass and form by careful selection and alteration of
visual material, the artist had the ability to emphasize, intensify or simplify his subject
matter. For example, impressionism emphasizes light and its relationship with color and
form, artist Claude Monet was one of the leading figures in the development of the
Impressionism movement. Chronophotography, or what is now referred to as time-lapse

photography, influenced the development of the work of Cubist and Futurist painters in
the early 20th century. Photomicrography, or photos taken through microscopes or other
instruments that magnify images, experiments with naturalistic abstraction. Aerial
photography enabled artists to visualize geometric patterns in landscapes seen from the
air. In these and other ways, innovations in photography led to new artistic movements
in painting.