onlyartists:Eugène CarrièreLe Contemplateur (1902)Illustrating the poem Booz Endormi (Boaz Sleeping)
onlyartists:Eugène CarrièreLe Contemplateur (1902)Illustrating the poem Booz Endormi (Boaz Sleeping) by Victor Hugo (1802-1885), this painting is one of five images created by Carrière to commemorate the centennial of Hugo’s birth. It depicts a reclining poet who, as if in a dream, gazes at the stars above, places one hand over his heart, and gestures toward a crescent moon. The image may refer to a moment of creative inspiration. The Symbolists believed that the moon exerts a special influence on artists and poets, inspiring not only creativity, butdarker thoughts of melancholy and suicide. -- source link