Eugene Anatole Carriere (French 1849-1906)

Eugeen Anatole Carriere was a French Symbolist, Fin de siècle artist.  His work is best known for its brown monochrome palette.  He was a close friend of the sculptor Auguste Rodin, and his work influenced Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso (some see traces of Carrière's monochrome style in Picasso's Blue period).

Carriere was born at Gournay (Seine et Marne) and studied at Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts and later under Alexandre Cabanel.  During the Franco-German War, he passed some time as a prisoner in Dresden, where the art of Peter Paul Rubens made a lasting impression on him, [1] as may be seen in the glowing colors of Carriere's earlier pictures. 

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.  His themes are usually scenes of his own domestic life, and he repeatedly introduces the likeness of his wife.  The first of these paintings, The Young Mother (1879), is now in the Museum of Avignon; it was followed by The Sick Child (Montargis), The First Communion (Toulon), and the excellent portrait of the sculptor Didier Devillez.

Carrière was one of the leaders in the secessionist movement, which led to the founding of the Société Nationale, in which he 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).  He also modeled a monument to Verlaine in the style of Rodin, and wrote gracefully and interestingly on art subjects.  Most of his works are in French private collections.