Le wagon de troisième classe

Le wagon de troisième classe (The Third-Class Carriage) is another version of Daumier's most celebrated social subject — the cramped, open third-class railway car where working-class and poor French travelers sat together on wooden benches for the duration of their journeys. The existence of multiple versions of this subject in Daumier's work reflects the importance he attached to it: the railway car as a site of social observation was one of the defining images of his engagement with modern French life. This version, its date and current location reflecting a different path through the art market and collecting history than the Metropolitan canvas, allows comparison of how Daumier varied his approach within the same essential subject. Whether in the specific figure arrangement, the handling of carriage light, or the selection of foreground protagonists, each version represents a fresh engagement with a subject whose human richness he found inexhaustible.

Each version of the Third-Class Carriage brings Daumier's mature gestural handling to the problem of figures in compressed interior space. The carriage's bench seating, small windows, and crowded condition create a specific spatial problem that he resolves through the careful management of figure.