Léon Carré

Léon Georges Jean-Baptiste Carré (France, 1878 – Algeri,1942)

The French Orientalist painter and illustrator best known to have illustrated The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.

He exhibited at the French Salon des Artistes in 1900; at the Salon des Independents in 1905; the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1907 and the Salon d'Automne in 1911. He was the winner of the Abd-el-Tif prize and a two-time winner of the Chenavard Prize.

Carré began his artistic career painting scenes of Parisian street life, and after he travelled to Algiers in 1905. One of his first Orientalist works, the Arab Market (Marché Arabé) earned him the Prix Chevanard (Chenavard Prize) in 1905.

Carré travelled extensively, moving in 1921, with the painters Louis-Ferdinand Antoni and Frédéric-Marius de Buzon, to decorate the new halls of the Palais d'Eté, designtourist posters, models of postage stamps for the Bank of Algeria. He was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1936. Carré died in Algiers where he had been living since the war.