In a dim, crowded third-class railway carriage, an old woman sits in silence, hands clasped over her basket; beside her a young mother nurses her baby and a boy dozes; behind them rows of passengers are packed onto wooden benches. Daumier offers no satire here, only heavy, earnest brushwork that shows the weariness and dignity of working people in the modern world.
Key facts
- Artist
- Honoré Daumier1808–1879 · French
- Date
- c. 1862–1864
- Period
- Realism1840–1880
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 65.4 × 90.2 cm
- Location
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, United States
Actual size
Compared with an adult 170 cm tall
Palette
#22120C#473020#6E4B24#A57E45Background
By the mid-nineteenth century the railways had spread rapidly, and the train became a means of transport shared by every class. Carriages were divided by fare into three classes: first class was spacious and comfortable, third class had bare wooden benches crowded with workers and peasants.
Daumier had drawn many satirical of railway passengers for the press. In this oil painting the mockery is gone; he observes the third-class travellers with sympathy.
Daumier treated the subject in several versions: besides this one, the National Gallery of Canada has a finished oil, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco a smaller oil on panel, and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore a watercolour. The Met's picture came in 1929 as part of the bequest of Mrs H. O. Havemeyer.
Technique & composition
Traces of the squaring lines used to transfer the design are still visible, and many passages are only blocked in with bold outlines, so the picture is generally considered unfinished. That makes Daumier's vigorous, draughtsman-like handling all the more visible.
Light enters through and falls on , and in the front row, while sink into shadow. Warm browns and ochres give the figures a sculptural weight.
Details
Symbolism
Three generations
The old woman, the young mother and the children in the front row form an image of three generations. Some have likened them to a secular Holy Family: poor and silent, yet possessing an unspoken dignity.
Alone in the crush
are packed together, yet each stares ahead and no one speaks. Seated alongside , they underline the distance between people in modern society.
Stories
- Did you know?
may hold goods for market. She grips it with both hands, her face stoic — the most memorable figure in the picture.
- Did you know?
Daumier's paintings were little appreciated in his lifetime; his first solo exhibition came only a year before his death. Later artists such as Degas and Van Gogh admired him greatly, and Van Gogh repeatedly praised his images of ordinary people in his letters.
Legacy
The Third-Class Carriage is a classic Realist image of the modern working class. Combining a caricaturist's sharp observation with a painter's compassion and gravity, Daumier gave ordinary people an enduring monument.
