Carries, Jean-Joseph

The son of a poor artisan in Lyon , he remained an orphan in early childhood. He received his first education in an orphanage, then served with a mason; in rare spare minutes he sculpted statues and models of various objects from clay . The imperfection of these attempts tormented him; he left the owner and for several years led a wandering life, moving from city to city, and finally ended up in Paris , in the workshops, as a simple artisan.

In Paris, he studied the marbles of the Louvre and Luxembourg. Talent woke up in him, and he created the sculptural group Epaves ( Discarded by the Sea) - a group of beggars whose tragic fate was so clear to him. This work struck his acquaintances and made him recognize first-class talent. But Carriess goes further. He takes other plots, with amazing ease, moving from the heavy dramas of life to the graceful female heads to which he knows how to impart nobility. These new creations of the artist make the press talk about him.

In 1892, he exhibited in the Salon of the Field of Mars , and President Carnot , bypassing the exhibition on the opening day. he is awarded the title of Knight of the Legion of Honor , despite the fact that such an honor has never been given to artists who exhibit for the first time. But the creative nature of Carriess carries him further: he throws the sculpture and passionately indulges in burning and enameling clay works, striving to achieve the perfection of Japanese enamel. In the midst of this work, to which he devoted himself entirely, forgetting about his daily bread, death kept him safe. He caught a cold, and after a few days he was gone. He was buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery .

• Obituary // Journal of Fine Arts "Artist", Moscow, No. 41, September 1894, p. 237

• Biography, photographs (French)
• Selected Works (Fr.)