After Honoré Daumier (1808-1879) - Lithograph Le Wagon de Trosieme Classe

Description

A posthumous lithograph of Honoré Daumier's "Le Wagon de Troisième Classe" ("The Third Class Carriage"). Ordinary working-class Parisians were frequent subjects of Daumier's work. Here, a nursing mother, elderly woman, and young boy sit in a third-class railway carriage. Daumier depicts the poverty and fortitude of working-class travellers with characteristic empathy and social observation. Inscribed "de h Daumier" and numbered 354/500 in pencil to the lower margin. On paper.

Condition

Signs of wear consistent with age, including discolouration and dirtying, to the paper. Small pinholes to the corners. Small tear to the lower left corner.

Size

20 x 28.5cm (7.9" x 11.2")
Sheet: 26 x 34cm (10.2" x 13.4")

Artist Biography

Honoré-Victorin Daumier was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker. His works offered social and political commentary on life in France in the nineteenth century. He earned a living drawing caricatures and cartoons for newspapers such as La Caricature and Le Charivari. He was also a serious painter. His work frequently blurred the lines between the caricature and fine art. Although his paintings were largely overlooked by the French public and critics of the day, fellow painters – as well as the poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire – noticed and greatly admired his work. Later generations would recognise Daumier as one of the great French artists of the 19th century, profoundly influencing a younger generation of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters.