id: 124804 accession number: 1946.283 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1946.283 updated: 2019-11-18 10:18:36.392000 The Contemplator, 1901. Eugène Carrière (French, 1849-1906). Oil on fabric; framed: 47.6 x 57.2 x 5.1 cm (18 3/4 x 22 1/2 x 2 in.); unframed: 33.6 x 41 cm (13 1/4 x 16 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, In memory of Ralph King, gift of Mrs. Ralph King; Ralph T. Woods, Charles G. King; and Frances King Schafer 1946.283 title: The Contemplator title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1901 creation date earliest: 1901 creation date latest: 1901 current location: creditline: In memory of Ralph King, gift of Mrs. Ralph King; Ralph T. Woods, Charles G. King; and Frances King Schafer copyright: --- culture: France, late 19th-early 20th Century technique: oil on fabric department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Eugène Carrière (French, 1849-1906) - artist Eugène Carrière grew up in Strasbourg, the sixth of seven children in a working-class family. He attended the city's academy in 1862 and two years later worked as a commercial lithographer. In 1869 Carrière moved to Paris, where he discovered the art of the Old Masters, Rubens in particular, which influenced his decision to become an artist. He entered the École des Beaux-Arts and studied under one of the foremost academic painters, Alexandre Cabanel (1823-1889). His training was suspended, however, with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). Shortly after enlisting, he was captured by the Germans and taken to Dresden where he was held prisoner for one year. At the end of the war he returned to Paris to resume his studies under Cabanel, and to support himself he worked for a lithographer friend, Jules Chéret (1836-1932). Carrière's painting career took off slowly, and in the Salons of 1876, 1877, and 1878 his paintings received little recognition. In 1878 he married Sophie Desmonceaux (with whom he would have seven children), and the couple spent six months in London where he discovered the works of Turner (q.v.). Back in Paris, he spent the next decade working odd jobs, most often in printshops in order to sustain his family. Through his brother, a ceramist, Carrière began working in 1880 for the Sèvres porcelain factory and there met sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). This friendly and steady associ-ation inspired each artist's work. In 1879 Carrière had painted his first maternité entitled Jeune mère (Musée Calvet, Avignon), a subject to which he would return throughout his career. His success as a painter began at the Salon of 1884 when his entry received an honorable mention. His good fortune continued with awards at the Salons of 1885 and 1887. Two years later, a medal at the Universal Exposition and the Legion of Honor indicated how well his work was received by critics, artists, and writers. From 1890 through 1897, Carrière lived his most fruitful years as an artist, began making lithographs, and frequently traveled abroad. He was connected with most of the important critics and avant-garde artists of the time, such as Bonnard (q.v.), Gauguin (q.v.), Vuillard (q.v.), Maurice Denis (1870-1943), and Paul Sérusier (1864-1927). He was also admired by the symbolists for the dreamlike quality of his paintings. In 1890 he associated himself with Meissonier (q.v.), Rodin, Félix Bracquemond (1833-1914), and Puvis de Chavannes (q.v.), who founded the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in opposition to the official system of the Salon des Artistes Français. In 1903, in an effort to oppose restrictive rules of the Société Nationale, Carrière established a new salon, the Salon d'Automne, and was named its president. --- measurements: Framed: 47.6 x 57.2 x 5.1 cm (18 3/4 x 22 1/2 x 2 in.); Unframed: 33.6 x 41 cm (13 1/4 x 16 1/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower right, etched into paint layer, revealing white ground: Eugène Carrière translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Eugene Carriere opening date: 1996-10-18T00:00:00 Eugene Carriere. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Chateau des Rohan, Strasbourg (October 18, 1996-February 9, 1997). title: European Muses, American Masters: 1870 to 1950 opening date: 2004-06-23T00:00:00 European Muses, American Masters: 1870 to 1950. Portland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 23-October 17, 2004). title: Rodin/Carrière, Interferences opening date: 2006-03-07T00:00:00 Rodin/Carrière, Interferences. National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (organizer) (March 7-June 4, 2006); Musée d'Orsay (July 10-October 1, 2006). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * On the occasion of the celebration of the centennial of Victor Hugo. Librairie des Éditions d'Art Édouard Pelletan, Paris, France (1902). * Eugène Carrière. École Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Paris, France (1907). --- PROVENANCE Édouard Pelletan, Paris. Scott & Fowles, New York. Bought by Ralph King. Given by his family to the CMA in 1946. date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: In this painting Carrière captures the atmosphere of Victor Hugo's poems through his expressive brushstrokes and monochromatic palette. The artist's monochrome paintings influenced Picasso and his Blue Period works. digital description: wall description: This painting illustrating Victor Hugo's poem Boaz Sleeping is one of five images Carrière created to commemorate the centennial of Hugo's birth. A reclining poet gazes at the stars above, as if in a dream, placing one hand over his heart and gesturing toward a crescent moon. The moon was thought to exert a special influence on poets and artists, inspiring not only creativity but darker thoughts of melancholy and suicide. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Carrière, Eugène, and Gabriel Séailles. Exposition de l'œuvre de Eugène Carrière au palais de l'école nationale des beaux-arts, quai malaquais, mai-juin 1907: catalogue des œuvres exposées. Paris, France: Imprimerie Georges Petit, 1907. page number: Reproduced: no. 207 url: Francis, Henry S. "Paintings." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art XXXIV, no. 2 (February, 1947): 24. page number: Mentioned: p. 24 url: Carrière, Jean-René. De la Vie d'Eugène Carrière, souvenirs, lettres, pensées, documents. Toulouse, France: E. Privat, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 229 url: Allentown Art Museum. Eugène Carrière, 1849-1906, Seer of the Real. Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA: 1968. page number: Reproduced: no. 21 url: Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen. Le Symbolisme en Europe: [exposition] : Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, novembre 1975-janvier 1976, Bruxelles, Musées royaux des beaux-arts de Belgique, janvier-mars 1976, Baden-Baden, Staatliche Kunsthalle, mars-mai 1976, Paris, Grand palais, mai-juillet 1976. Paris, France: Éditions des musées nationaux, 1976. page number: Reproduced: no. 22 url: Roberts-Jones, Philippe. Beyond Time and Place: Non-Realist Painting in the Nineteenth Century. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 138 url: Bantens, Robert James, and Robert Rosenblum. Eugène Carrière: The Symbol of Creation. New York, NY: Kent Fine Art, 1990. page number: Mentioned: p. 110-112; Reproduced: p. 1112 url: Rapetti, Rodolphe, Marie-Jeanne Geyer, and Marie-Pierre Salé. Eugène Carrière, 1849-1906: Musées de Strasbourg, Ancienne douane, 19 octobre 1996-9 février 1997. Paris, France: Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1996. page number: Reproduced: no. 68 url: ajou-Charpentreau, Valérie. Eugène Carrière: portrait intimiste, 1849-1906. Lausanne, Switzerland: Acatos, 1998. page number: Reproduced: Detail, p. 154-155; Reproduced: p. 172-173 url: D'Argencourt, Louise and Roger Diederen. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue of Paintings, Part Four: European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 page number: Reproduced: p. 40 url: Klimt, Andreas, and Michael Steppes. Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: bio-bibliographischer Index A-Z = The artists of the world : bio-bibliographical index A-Z. München, Germany: K.G. Saur, 1999. page number: Reproduced: p. 608 url: Wissman, Fronia E., and Carrie Haslett. European Muses, American Masters, 1870-1950. Portland, ME: Portland Museum of Art, 2004. page number: Reproduced: p. 852 url: Buley-Uribe, Christina. Auguste Rodin, Eugène Carrière. Paris, France: Flammarion, 2006. page number: Mentioned: p. 41; Reproduced: p. 1119 url: Nora-Milin, Véronique, Alice Lamarre,and Rodolphe Rapetti. Eugène Carrière, 1849-1906: catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint. Paris, France: Gallimard, 2008. page number: Reproduced: p. 321 url: Bergez, Daniel. Peindre le rêve: des rêves bibliques au surréalisme. Paris : Réunion des musées nationaux-Grand Palais, 2016. page number: Reproduced: 99, 128; Mentioned: 128-130. url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1946.283/1946.283_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1946.283/1946.283_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1946.283/1946.283_full.tif