Gnome Watching the Railway Train is a painting by the german artist Carl Spitzweg (1808-1885). It was made around 1848. Spitzweg was one of the great artists of the German Romanticism and the Biedermeier genres.
In the painting we see a lone gnome looking at a train passing by in the distance. He stands at the entrance of a dark cave that surrounds the borders of this artwork, while outside there is bright daylight.
What is this painting supposed to mean? Is it about the arrival of modernity and the new industrial age that leaves the old medieval world in darkness? A bright future outside that is waiting to be discovered?
Or is the piece more melancholy? Are we supposed to empathize with the gnome and feel his sadness as he sees his time pass by? Should we feel sad about the destruction of nature that this new mechanical era will bring?
Is the piece about optimism or nostalgia? Are we the little creature whose days are numbered, or are we in the train and unaware that a gnome is watching us from far away?
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