Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more
About the Artwork
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.
Inscriptions
Signed lower right, etched into paint layer, revealing white ground: Eugène Carrière
Provenance
Édouard Pelletan [1854-1912], Paris, France (Scott & Fowles, New York, NY, sold to Ralph King) -1946: Ralph King [1855-1926], Cleveland, OH, by gift in his memory from his family to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1946-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Eugene Carriere Retrospective. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA (November 2, 1968-January 26, 1969); Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA (organizer) (November 2, 1968-January 26, 1969); Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH (February 16-August 3, 1969); Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA (November 15, 1969-January 11, 1970); Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (February 22-April 5, 1970). Le Symbolisme en Europe (Symbolism in Europe). Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (organizer) (November 14, 1975-January 11, 1976); Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles, Belgium (January 23-March 7, 1976); Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (March 19-May 6, 1976); Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, France (May 21-July 19, 1976). Eugene Carriere. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Chateau des Rohan, Strasbourg (October 18, 1996-February 9, 1997). European Muses, American Masters: 1870 to 1950. Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME (organizer) (June 23-October 17, 2004). Rodin/Carrière, Interferences. National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (organizer) (March 7-June 4, 2006); Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France (July 10-October 1, 2006).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Eugène Carrière (French, 1849–1906)
- Date
- 1901
- Medium
- oil on fabric
- 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.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- In memory of Ralph King, gift of Mrs. Ralph King; Ralph T. Woods, Charles G. King; and Frances King Schafer
- Accession no.
- 1946.283
More by Eugène Carrière in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009414
Powered by Art Trackers