En Chemin de fer—Un Voisin agréable

This lithograph depicts two railway passengers in cramped proximity—a recurring subject of 19th-century satirists. A portly, mustached man in top hat sits with arms crossed, while a thin, anxious woman beside him clutches her belongings. The artist exploits class anxiety and bodily discomfort inherent in modern rail travel, where strangers shared confined spaces. The exaggerated physiognomies reflect period caricature conventions that emphasized physical difference for comic effect. Part of a visual tradition stretching from Hogarth through Daumier, such prints mocked social pretension and the disruptions of industrialization. The lithographic technique allowed rapid production and wide distribution of satirical imagery in newspapers and serial publications—a direct ancestor of the modern comic strip.