until 1930, in the Louis-Henri Devillez collection; Louvre Museum, Paris (1930-1982); assigned to the Musée d'Orsay, Paris IN 1982
Eugène Carrière was a French Symbolist painter, who became renowned for intimate depictions of mothers and children along with realistic portraits of fellow artists. The atmospheric haze that seems to dissolve forms into light and shadow and the use of monochrome color palette in his paintings were unusual at a time when vibrant Impressionist color were widely used. Much of his work focused on human connection, family intimacy, and motherhood like this one. Maternité, the intimate and universal relationship of mother and child, was a particular motif that Carrière explored time and time again. His artistic career took a turn when La Jeune mère (The Young Mother) was honoured with a medal and purchased by the French state. Carrière's deliberate blurred contours make the figures dreamlike. He used darker earthy colors to a lighter background to intensify the mystical and magical feeling of the painting. Household decors were only hinted at or omitted entirely to make to make the painting feel like a long-lost memory; the soft illumination suggests the presence of emotional or spiritual life. Carrière was called ‘the sculptor among painters’ because he worked like a sculptor who uses the effect of light and the shadows cast by forms when shaping a sculpture. The figures do not appear as sharply defined silhouettes rather they seem to merge together in a tender eternal embrace. His atmospheric treatment of form and emotion influenced artists including Pablo Picasso and helped prepare the ground for new approaches.
The haziness of this intimate scene, where a mother lovingly holds her baby, speaks to the haziness of memory, perhaps suggesting that this painting is a depiction of reminiscing on younger years as a family. The golden undertones helped allude to this as well, making the haze even softer and warmer, focusing on areas of light and connection.
