Eugène Carrière was a French painter and lithographer. He grew up in Strasbourg where he attended drawing classes from 1861. From 1864, he trained as an advertising lithographer. In 1869, Carrière moved to Paris. At the École des Beaux-Arts, he became a pupil of Alexandre Cabanel. He enlisted for military service in the Franco-Prussian War, became a German prisoner of war and was interned in Dresden. By 1872, Carrière was back in Paris, where he started to work as a commercial lithographer. In 1876, he exhibited his first work at the Salon: a portrait of his mother. He married in 1878 and in the same year, he left with his wife for London to work for a publishing house for six months. In the early 1880s, critics began to take an interest in his work, writing about him and supporting him. Carrière then received lucrative commissions for decorative work, including work for the Sèvres porcelain manufactory from 1880 to 1885. He also received his first commissions as a painter and his works were purchased by museums. Carrière became an important representative of Symbolism and a pioneer of abstraction; he had a large circle of friends and corresponded regularly with Auguste Rodin and Paul Gauguin as well as with other artists. He received numerous awards for his work.