The Third-Class Carriage, ca. 1862–64
Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–1879)
Oil on canvas
Artist Biography
Technical Glossary
Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–1879)
Oil on canvas
25 3/4 x 35 1/2 in. (65.4 x 90.2 cm)
H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 (29.100.129)
As a chronicler of modern urban life, Daumier captured the effects of industrialization in mid-nineteenth-century Paris. Images of railway travel first appeared in his art in the 1840s. This Third-Class Carriage in oil, unfinished and squared for transfer, closely corresponds to a watercolor of 1864 (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore). Daumier executed another oil version of the subject, which he finished but extensively reworked (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa).
