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The Railway is an oil painting on canvas completed by Édouard Manet in 1873. It depicts a young woman, modeled by Victorine Meurent, in front of an iron fence near the Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris. Beside this pensive woman is a young girl, standing at the fence and watching through the railings as a train – identified only by its steam – passes beneath them.
The Railway was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1874, where it was subject to ridicule, and with a "baffling subject" and "incoherent execution". The painting was first purchased by the baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure, and later by American entrepreneur Henry Osborne Havemeyer. It was donated to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1956.Painting: Édouard Manet