Two Girls on a Train

"Traveling Companions", by Augustus Leopold Egg (1862)

If you want to understand how realism derives from romanticism, take a close look at this painting.

In the foreground we see two young woman in realistic poses, the one napping and the other immersed in her book. Whereas outside we see a romantic landscape seen through the windows of the moving train. Both exist in the same frame.

And so here we see romanticism and realism combined: a realistic depiction of train-travel, a distinctly modern phenomenon; and the romanticized image of the British coastline and the sumptuous dresses of the young women. Even the symbols in the painting are contrasted: Notice the romantic basket of produce and the bouquet of flowers, juxtaposed with the book and the fashionable hats.

Despite the symmetry in the painting, there is a key difference between the two yoing women. One of them is resting, the other reading. And herein we find another echo of romantic painting, namely it’s allegorical function. What if the girl on the left represents idleness and the girl on the right represents industry? Or, and here we can reverse the meaning, what if one girl is praying (virtue), and the other is reading for pleasure (vice). The painting suggests that if we view the women through the lens of romanticism, we cannot get a clear answer.

One of the key characteristics of 19th century realist art is that it depicts ‘realistic’ subjects, almost as if it were photography. And yet like with photography, this image isn’t necessarily a documentary-image, but an exercise in form: symmetry, ironic contrasting between foreground and background; frames within frames, etc. And then there is of course the realistic body language. These women are not posing, they are simply keeping to themselves.

But what makes this image so striking to me, is that it demonstrates how realism wasn’t just a reaction to romanticism, but very much emerged from within the romantic genre. All the hallmarks of romantic painting are here, but set in a realist style.

One could almost imagine this as a still from a Wes Anderson film, another artist who enjoys blending realism and romanticism. Consider, for example, how the train-sequences in “The Grand Budapest Hotel” were framed in a similar way to this painting. Except in the film it is the juxtaposition of the romantic train-carriage, in which the hotelier laments the passing of the age of sensibility, and the war that rages outside.

Behind the scenes on Wes Anderson’s “Grand Budapest Hotel”

But what I like most about this image is that it depicts a train journey. I’ve always had a soft spot for traveling by train, even when it’s occasionally been miserable. Because there’s always something about being on a train that puts me in a pensive mood. It’s as if one can view the world from a distance, and reflect on all the places one has been and would like yet to go. As Agatha Christie’s detective Poirot once said: the beauty of trains is that, like life, they go on.

Julian

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