Le Evil Genie

Léon Carré illustrates the Arabian Nights, tale of the Fisherman with the Genie, an inversion of the usual scheme of the “good genie” made famous by the story of Alladin. Here, as in the Grimm's tale The Spirit in the Bottle, the liberated creature, evil and full of anger, threatens the life of his saviour who tricks him into going back into his prison. Carré chooses a composition that he is attached to, and that many fantasy illustrators would later take up: he magnifies the monster compared to the little hero, barely visible from behind. The genie, densifying from a column of grey smoke up to the tips of his hard sharp claws, occupies almost the entire image and seems like an evil god descended from the heavens.