CARRIRE, EUGNE

born January 17, 1849, Gournay, France died March 27, 1906, Paris French painter, lithographer, and sculptor known for his scenes of domestic intimacy and for his portraits of distinguished literary and artistic personalities, including his friends Alphonse Daudet, Anatole France, and Paul Verlaine. In 1870 Carrire entered the cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and after service in the Franco-German War he returned to Paris to study with one of the leading French academic painters, Alexandre Cabanel. From 1877 he frequently included his wife in his portrayals of family groups and pictures of maternity. He employed the rich colours of Peter Paul Rubens and Diego Velzquez until about 1890, when he began to develop his own distinctive style, which usually involved figures shrouded in a pearly mist, delicate, predominantly gray tonalities, and soft modeling.