Who is known for his satirical caricatures and the painting 'The Third-Class Carriage'?

Honoré Daumier is known for satirical caricatures and the painting The Third-Class Carriage. The French artist worked as a painter, sculptor, draughtsman, and printmaker, but earned his living chiefly through sharp political and social caricatures.

Daumier became famous for lithographs published in periodicals including La Caricature and Le Charivari. He lampooned monarchs, politicians, lawyers, judges, the clergy, the wealthy, and the bourgeoisie. His work combined exaggerated facial features with pointed commentary on power, hypocrisy, and social inequality.

The Third-Class Carriage refers to at least three related oil paintings made between the 1850s and 1860s. They show weary working-class travelers packed into a cramped railway compartment, including a nursing mother, an older woman, and a sleeping child in two well-known versions. Rather than turning poverty into sentimental spectacle, Daumier gives the passengers quiet dignity and physical presence.

Daumier is often linked loosely with French Realism because of his attention to contemporary social life, although his caricatural style does not fit neatly into one category. A common mix-up is to identify Gustave Courbet or Jean-François Millet, both major French Realists; neither created this celebrated railway series.