Carlo Carrà was bedridden by a long illness when he was only twelve years old. During that period, he began to learn, independently, the rudiments of drawing. His real artistic journey started as a decorator, first in Valenza (Alessandria) and then in Milan, where he attended the Scuola Superiore di Arte Applicata all’Industria at Castello Sforzesco. In the years between the two centuries, Carrà visited first Paris and then London. In the French capital he participated as a decorator of several pavilions at the Exposition Universelle and appreciated the works of the Impressionists at the Louvre. In London he became acquainted with the works of John Constable and those of William Turner.
In 1906, he entered the Brera Academy, where he met, among others, Aroldo Bonzagni, Filiberto Sbardella and Umberto Boccioni. At first, Carrà joined the Divisionism current to overcome the provincialism of Italian painting in those years. But, with the publication of the Manifesto of Futurism in 1909, it became clear that it was the path the young artist would take to truly embody his desire for renewal. Carrà collaborated with the Futurist Movement for six years, producing works such as: La stazione di Milano (1910-11), Luci Notturne (1910-11), Donna al balcone (1912), Trascendenze plastiche (1912) e Manifestazione interventista (1914).
In 1910, he signed the Manifesto of the Futurist Painters and the Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting, in 1912 he devised the Manifesto of the painting of sounds, noises, smells. The same year he dedicated to his lover Leda Rafanelli the work on the Funerali dell’anarchico Galli, conceived a few years earlier (1910-1911).
In 1916, Carrà discontinued his membership in the Movement, preferring Metaphysical painting. By 1915, Carrà had already begun to feel a shift away from the themes of dynamism and speed, favoring a more structured engagement with reality. This transition was catalyzed by his experiences during the Great War, during which Carrà initially held staunch interventionist beliefs, a sentiment shared by many other Futurists. The harrowing realities of the war took a toll on Carrà, ultimately leading to a nervous breakdown that necessitated hospitalization in a facility near Ferrara. It was in Ferrara, in 1917, that Carrà met Giorgio De Chirico, Alberto Savinio, and Filippo de Pisis. Together, these artists formulated the principles of Metaphysical art. Works from this period are:  Il cavaliere occidentale (1917), L’idolo ermafrodito (1917),Madre e figlio (1917) and the very famous Musa metafisica (1917). In 1919, just as years earlier Carrà had devoted himself to Lacerba, the magazine symbolic of the Futurist Movement, he now formed an important association with Valori Plastici, which was interrupted only with the closing of the magazine in 1921. The same year he painted Lefiglie di Loth (1919) a work that marks the transition from Metaphysics to Magical Realism, in a path in which he shows that he espouses the Return to Order poetics professed on Plastic Values. It was followed in the early 1920s by works such as: L’amante dell’ingegnere (1921), Meriggio (1923) and L’attesa (1926).
During the historical period culturally dominated by fascist rhetoric, it is commonly believed that artists were compelled to reconnect with the Italic roots of painting. Consequently, Carrà delved into the works of late Middle Ages and very early Renaissance Masters such as Giotto and Masaccio, seeking an idealized, clean, archaizing, and minimal language. In the early 1920s, mainly as a result of two summer sojourns, Carrà rediscovered nature, as shown in the work Vele nel Porto (1923).
In 1926, he became a member of the Novecento group, finding growing inspiration in contemporary French painting, particularly from Paul Cezanne. It seems that he was drawn to Cezanne not only for his themes, but also for the purity of forms. Additionally, he found influence from Italian Primitivo painters. However, another significant influence emerged from the works of the French painter Georges Seurat, evident in his pieces from the late 1920s and 1930s, all of which intriguingly revolved around marine themes, such as: I nuotatori (1932), Barcaiolo (1930), Mattino al mare (1928), Paesaggio marino (1932).
Carrà was arguably one of the most senior painters of the Italian twentieth century, displaying an almost romantic bond with Versilia and its seascapes. Despite his extensive travels, he consistently gravitated back to this region: from the Capanni Sul mare  (1937), Chiaravalle  (1938), the  Prostituta   (1945), Venezia  (1946), Marina in Camogli  (1957) to Casa di Merate (1959). Works constructed with a fantastic order, designed to emulate the formal as well as the moral dimension of the ancients. The artist taught at the Brera Academy from 1939 to 1952. He died in 1966 in Milan.