This painting is
the painting I wake up to every morning and the painting a think about as I
fall asleep. It consists of two
women on a train compartment in big grey Victorian dresses and round hats with
a red feather on their laps. One
of the women is reading and the other is asleep. I wonder about their occupation thinking that they might
have been part of the Salvation Army, but Egg was painting during the early 19th
centaury and I’m not sure without checking if they even existed at that
point. They could be Governesses
as depicted in the novels of the Bronte’s. I feel that their dresses is some kind of uniform or it may
reflect they lack of consumer choice in clothing. In the background you can see the sea and a little village
or town by it. The hills or
mountains remind me of the Welsh coast and so they could well be traveling into
Aberystwyth, which I like.
What I really like
about this painting is that it reflects my attitude towards travel, best done
on a train where you can either look out of the window, or rest, or read moving
from one to the other depending on what is comfortable at the time. It feels safe and looking at it you
feel included in their private world.
It is a world within a world.
I also like how they have oranges in their basket, the fruit I most like
to travel with due to their organic wrapper. I also like it because it is possible parodied in Lewis Carroll’s
Alice Through the Looking-Glass.
Despite the
stuffiness of their dresses they seem to be at ease and relaxed, exactly how traveling
should be. It is also this continuity
of train travel that connects the present age with the Victorian age and I feel
that when I step on a train with a book and some oranges I am taking part in
some mechanical tradition of being an experienced traveler.
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