CARRE Léon Georges
A ROMANTIC TRIP
Watercolour and gouache: 32 x 22.5 cm / 12.6 x 8.8 in
Signed lower right
Painter of landscapes and genre scenes; painter of pastels and illustrator of modern life. Orientalist.
Léon Carré was a pupil of Mathurin Meheut in Rennes and of Bonnat and Luc-Olivier Merson in Paris. He was a double winner of the Chenavard Price. He went on to exhibit at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1900 and at the Salon des Artistes Indépendants. He also exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, from 1911 on, and at the Salon d’Automne. In 1907 he made his first journey to Algeria and settled down in Alger. In 1909 he won the Villa Abd-el-Tif grant.
His Algerian landscapes and views of Paris are painted in oil or pastel, with light colours and softly-filtered light. In 1927 he contributed to the decoration of the liner ‘Ile de France’ for the Compagnie Transatlantique and also created numerous posters (for example the one of the 1930 Algerian Centenary).
His work can be admired at the Alger Fine Arts Museum, the Luxemburg Museum, the Orsay Museum, the Paris National Museum of Modern Art and the Pompidou Centre (David Darmon Collection). Murals by his hand can be seen in the Alger Summer Palace and Town Hall.
Period:
Granville 1878 - Alger 1942
French School
Exhibitions:
Alger - Luxemburg - Paris
Literature:
E. Bénézit, "Dictionary of Artists", Paris 2006, Vol. 3, p. 467.
