Eugène Carrière

Eugène Carrière
Self-portrait (c. 1893), oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art
Born	Eugène Anatole Carrière (1849-01-16)16 January 1849 Gournay-sur-Marne, France
Died	Paris, France
Nationality	French
Known for	Painting, Lithography
Movement	Symbolism

Eugène Anatole Carrière (16 January 1849 – 27 March 1906) was a French Symbolist artist of the Fin de siècle period. His paintings are best known for their brown monochrome palette. He was a close friend of the sculptor Rodin and his work influenced Picasso. Some see traces of Carrière's monochrome style in Picasso's Blue Period.

Biography

He was born at Gournay-sur-Marne (Seine-Saint-Denis). He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and later under Cabanel. During the Franco-Prussian War he passed some time as a prisoner in Dresden, where the art of Rubens made a lasting impression on him, as may be seen in the glowing colors of his early paintings. About 1890 he adopted the gray, misty-color scheme with contrasts of light and shadow, so characteristic of his art, but which no other artist has been able to imitate without affectation.

Eugene Carrière, Woman Leaning on a Table, circa 1893

His themes usually are scenes of his domestic life, and he repeatedly introduced the likeness of his wife in his paintings. The first of these, The Young Mother (1879), is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. It was followed by, The Sick Child (Montargis), The First Communion (Toulon), and the highly praised 1887 portrait of the sculptor Louis-Henri Devillez.

Carrière was one of the leaders in the secessionist movement, which led to the founding of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. At the Société, Carrière exhibited, among other works, Sleep (1890), the celebrated portrait of Paul Verlaine (1891, Luxembourg), Maternity (1892, Luxembourg), Christ on the Cross (1897), and Madame Menard-Dorian (1906).

Carrière played an influential role as an art teacher at Académie de La Palette.

He also modeled a monument to Verlaine in the style of Rodin.

Femme regardant, National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires

Several of his works may be found at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and in National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade.

See also

• Léonce Bénédite

External links

• Eugène Carrière at the Museum of Modern Art
• Eugène Carrière: Symbols of Creations Exhibition at Kent Fine Art, New York
• Musée Virtuel Eugène Carrière
• Hollis, Richard. "Ghostly realist", The Guardian, August 26, 2006
• Paintings at Beauty and Ruin
• Paintings at Artcyclopedia
• Eugène Carrière at Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, Connecticut