Evening Train (Wiscasset, Maine)

Stow Wengenroth

Stow Wengenroth tackles a difficult problem head on in this composition, an evening scene where most of the stone is drawn on to create values of whites and grays to black. The viewer sees the train and its lighted cars from a distance, through reeds and across a marsh. The sky is delicately shaded from dark on the left to light at the right with a crescent moon suspended over the train, giving the impression of approaching night.

Wiscasset is a town in and the county seat of Lincoln County, Maine. The population was 3,732 as of the 2010 census. Wiscasset is a tourist destination and is noted for its early architecture.

Rail service to Wiscasset began with the Knox and Lincoln Railroad in 1871. The Knox and Lincoln was merged into the Maine Central Railroad in 1901. Wiscasset was connected to the national rail network by the completion of the Carlton bridge over the Kennebec River in 1927.

In his essay about Wengenroth in the Ronald and Joan Stuckey catalogue raisonné curator Paul Swenson from the Knobloch Collection comments about "Evening Train" on page 38: "One senses that commuter trains have passed this spot at regular intervals for a long period of time. We are also reminded of the slightly stuffy interiors of railroad coaches of years ago with crimson plush seats and with advertisements over the windows."