The Railway", 1873 by Edouard Manet (National Gallery of Art)
STREAMING PROGRAM INFORMATION
- This program is part of our Smithsonian Associates Streaming series.
- Platform: Zoom
- Online registration is required.
- For multiple registrations, you will be asked to supply individual names and email addresses.
Great art is timeless, and speaks to us across time, culture and space. Yet great works come from real people living real lives—whether their work was made 5 minutes or 500 years ago. Popular Smithsonian Associates speaker Paul Glenshaw looks at great works of art in their historical context. He delves into the time of the artist, explores the present they inhabited, and what shaped their vision and creations.
A young woman stares out from the canvas, seated on a ledge in front of an iron rail. A puppy sits on her lap. A young girl next to her faces the opposite direction, seemingly staring at a huge cloud of water vapor from a passing train in the rail yard below. When The Railway was first seen, Manet had once again presented high-minded Parisians with a truly modern scene of an everyday passing moment. Why were his works such radical departures in French painting? What did this scene represent, only three years after the disastrous Franco-Prussian War of 1870? Glenshaw returns to northwest Paris and the Gare Saint-Lazare to explore Manet’s city and its changing times.
Glenshaw is an artist, educator, author, and filmmaker with more than 25 years' experience working across disciplines in the arts, history, and sciences. He teaches drawing for Smithsonian Associates and studied painting at Washington University in St. Louis.
World Art History Certificate elective: Earn 1/2 credit*
Art and History Lectures
If you are interested in additional Art + History lectures, view the upcoming schedule:
Patron Information
- Once registered, patrons should receive an automatic email confirmation from CustomerService@SmithsonianAssociates.org.
- Separate Zoom link information will be emailed closer to the date of the program. If you do not receive your Zoom link information 24 hours prior to the start of the program, please email Customer Service for assistance.
- View Common FAQs about our Streaming Programs on Zoom.
*Enrolled participants in the World Art History Certificate Program receive 1/2 elective credit. Not yet enrolled? Learn about the program, its benefits, and how to register here.
