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The Contemplator

Eugène Carrière1901

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States

This painting illustrating Victor Hugo's poem <em>Boaz Sleeping</em> 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.

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  • Title: The Contemplator
  • Creator: Eugène Carrière (French, 1849–1906)
  • Date Created: 1901
  • Physical Dimensions: 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.)
  • Provenance: Édouard Pelletan [1854-1912], Paris, France, (Scott & Fowles, New York, NY, sold to Ralph King), Ralph King [1855-1926], Cleveland, OH, by gift in his memory from his family to the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Type: Painting
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1946.283
  • Medium: oil on fabric
  • Inscriptions: Signed lower right, etched into paint layer, revealing white ground: Eugène Carrière
  • 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.
  • Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
  • Culture: France, late 19th-early 20th Century
  • Credit Line: In memory of Ralph King, gift of Mrs. Ralph King; Ralph T. Woods, Charles G. King; and Frances King Schafer
  • Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
  • Accession Number: 1946.283
The Cleveland Museum of Art

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