The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Clara, 8, Beirut, Lebanon

2012

Rania Matar

(Lebanese, 1964-)
Lebanon
inkjet print
Image: 71.1 x 91.4 cm (28 x 36 in.)
Gift of Friends of Photography 2019.45
© Rania Matar
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Matar was photographing Clara’s two sisters when she spotted their younger sibling and offered to shoot her so she wouldn’t feel left out.

Description

When Rania Matar started to photograph Clara, independently assumed the pose of an odalisque—a recumbent female figure used in Western art as an emblem of exoticism and female sensuality. This photograph is part of Matar’s series L’Enfant-Femme (2011–16). That French expression describes the fleeting preteen and early teen stage when a girl starts to become a woman.
  • Rania Matar (the artist)
    Robert Klein Gallery, Boston, MA
    June 3, 2019
    the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lowry, Lois, and Kristen Gresh. Rania Matar. L'enfant-Femme. Damiani Editore, 2016
    Matar, Rania, and Joy Jeehye Kim. In Her Image: Photographs by Rania Matar. 2017.
  • {{cite web|title=Clara, 8, Beirut, Lebanon|url=false|author=Rania Matar|year=2012|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2019.45