Madame Case (after September 1900, probably summer 1901): Art, History and Details

Madame Case (after September 1900, probably summer 1901) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Eugène Carrière (French, 1849–1906).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This painting may depict the wife of the artist's close friend, writer Jules Case. In a letter written after her death, Case asked the artist to paint her portrait from an enlarged photograph. "My dear friend," Case wrote, "would you preserve the only face which, from now on, can bring me some little joy, if one can use this word for a sentiment mixed with so much suffering." Carrière emphasized the poetic mood by placing the shadowy figure in a vague, dreamlike space. Known for his evocative paintings of women and children, Eugène Carrière was loosely associated with the French Symbolist movement, which aimed at expressing inner, spiritual life and emotions rather than the outward appearance of physical reality.

Object facts

• Title: Madame Case
• Date: after September 1900, probably summer 1901
• Creator attribution: Eugène Carrière (French, 1849–1906)
• Culture: France, late 19th-early 20th Century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on fabric
• Dimensions: Unframed: 46.2 x 38.1 cm (18 3/16 x 15 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1967.126

A detail from the museum

The painting evokes an illusory, dreamy quality that may reflect the fact that Carrière never met his model.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Year in Review.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54, no. 10 (December 1967): 302–346.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.