Eugène Carrière

Although Degas seems to have been unmoved by Symbolist art, he respected the work of Carrière. An important figure in the Symbolist movement, Carrière’s ethereal images are pervaded by a poetic naturalism and dreamlike stillness.

This sheet belongs to a small group of landscapes that Carrière made towards the end of his career. With a soft and almost misty focus, Carrière transformed reality into a quasi-abstract two-dimensional system of broad planes differentiated by changes in the density of the striated brushstrokes. Perhaps it was this painterly application of medium, reminiscent of Degas’s monotypes, that attracted Degas to Carriére’s work in general.