CARRIERS, EUGENE (1849-1906), French painter, born at Gournay (Seine-Inferieure) on Jan. 17, 1849, son of a Flemish father and an Alsatian mother, passed his early youth at Stras bourg and moved with his parents to Saint Quentin in 1868. His enthusiasm for art was roused on seeing the pastels of La Tour. He went to Paris in 187o to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. The war with Germany, however, interrupted his work; he enlisted as a volunteer, was made a prisoner and taken to Dresden. Here he had opportunity of studying the works of art in the gallery, and felt especially attracted to Rubens. On his return to Paris he resumed his studies under Cabanel (1872-76). In 1877 he mar ried the woman who was henceforth to figure in his famous pic tures of "maternity," and of family groups. He developed gradu ally a distinctive style by suppressing local colour and outline, and by modelling in planes by means of delicate contrasts of light and dark. The figures seem to be enveloped in a grey mist. His por trait renderings are alive and sensitive ; and he painted some dis tinguished personalities of his literary and artistic circle of friends: Alphonse Daudet, Anatole France, Paul Verlaine, Louis Henri, Devillez and others. He undertook to decorate the town hall of the X. Arrondissement in Paris with a series of large panels (Palais des Beaux Arts), a work which remained uncompleted at his death in Paris on March 27, 1906. The Luxembourg has several of his pictures; but most of his work is in private ownership (Paul Gallimard and Madame Montagne Devillez). Eugene Carriere also practised lithography and sculpture. He was an enthusiastic teacher, taking an active part in the artistic life of Paris as one of the founders of the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts and of the Salon d'Automne. His writings and letters were published by the Mercure de France (1909).
See also Gabriel Seailles, E. Carriere (1901) and E. Carriere, Essai de biographie psychologique (191o) ; Gustave Geffroy, L'oeuvre de E. Carriere (19o1) ; Ch. Morice, E. Carriere (1906) ; Elie Faure, E. Carriere, peintre et lithographe (1908) .