detail from "The Sick Child." Photograph © Reunion des Musees Nationaux / Art Resource, NY. Reproduced with permission.

This painting, called "The Sick Child," is by the French artist Eugene Carriere (1849-1906). It was shown at the Paris Salon of 1885, and was made 10 years before his painting also entitled "The Sick Child" (see the cover of the 15 February 2003 issue; volume 36, number 4). Carriere, a friend and colleague of Auguste Rodin, had a successful career but is no longer well known. Carriere painted domestic scenes, such as this work, often using his own family as subjects. His work is appealing for the subtle colors and refined brushwork that capture this intimate moment. The infant is awake but immobile, with a puffy, flushed face and limp arms; the mother is almost invisible behind the child as she gives him a quiet kiss. The artist's technical skill is obvious in the portrait-like quality of the faces of the infant and the other children and in details such as the glass and spoon on the table, the fur of the dog, and the rug beneath the mother's chair. The painting belongs to the Musee d'Orsay, Paris. (Ann Arvin, Cover Art Editor)