Carrera bridged academic tradition and the vibrant currents of Post-Impressionism in the early 20th century. Born in Marseille to Spanish parents, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Marseille before moving to Paris, continuing his training at the Académie Julian and under Jean-Paul Laurens at the École des Beaux-Arts. His early work reflected a solid academic foundation, but he soon developed a style marked by luminous color and a fluid, expressive brushwork, strongly influenced by the Mediterranean light of his native south.
Carrera became known for his landscapes, coastal scenes, and portraits, frequently painting in Provence, Brittany, and along the French Riviera. He exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français and was awarded numerous honors during his lifetime, including a gold medal at the 1929 Salon.
In Girl Gathering Flower, Carrera employs an exciting technique of flat, broad patches of vividly rich and expressive color. This effect, which stemmed out of both the Fauvist and Pointillist movement, makes the work pulsate and dazzle the eye, saturated with color that demands the viewer’s attention. The energy produced by this style of painting makes a simple portrait of a young girl become alive and for the viewer to feel the light of the summer’s day. The date of this work is still fairly early in the experimentation of these techniques, and it is interesting to speculate if coming from Spanish heritage there was innate love of bold color and bravura brushwork. His work could be uneven, and it is works of this nature that he is most noted for. Taken individually, this is an exceptional work of art from this period. He came out of two of the great French teachers in France, Leon Bonnat and Henri Martin.