LÉON CARRÉ (1878-1942)
Afkadou (1,623m - 5,424ft)
Algeria (Kabylie)
In Bergers en Kabylie 1918, oil on canvas, private owner
Akfadou (1,623m - 5,424ft) is a mountain range of Kabylie (Algéria), dominated by two peaks, one to the west overlooking the Akfadou plateau where the TDA station is located, the other to the east is Azrou Taghat (1,542 m - 50,59ft). Snow is abundant in the cold season and rains exceed 2m (6,56 ft) per year. Akfadou extends the Djurdjura north-east and extends from Tizi Icelladen in the east to Yakouren in the west. It serves as the junction point between high and low Kabylie. Oriented full East, it faces the valley of Soummam.
The weather conditions are very harsh with heavy snow in cold seasons and rains often exceed 2,000 mm per year. With its remarkable diversity and richness in both flora and fauna, the Akfadou forest occupies most of this natural crossroads of unprecedented scale in North Africa to the point of becoming the lungs of Algeria.
The artist
The French orientalist painter and illustrator Léon Carré entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Rennes, then he joined the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris on 1896 thanks to Léon Bonnat. He was the double winner of the Chenavard prize. He exhibited at the Salon of French Artists in 1900 and, in 1905, at the Salon des Independants, and made a first trip to Algeria in 1907.
He exhibited at the Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts from 1911, and at the Autumn Fair.
Winner of the Villa Abd-el-Tif scholarship in 1909, he settled in Algiers. Orientalist painter, he practices oil, gouache and pastel. In 1927, Léon Carré helped decorate the Ile-de-France liner for the Transatlantic Company, and designed numerous posters for the PLM Company (including the centenary of Algeria in 1930).
He also drew the 50 franc banknote issued by the Bank of Algeria in 1942.
He was recently rediscovered as a great landscaper regarded to his numerous post impressionist paintings and watercolors of Atlas mountains and Kabylia landscapes (see above)
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
