Born in Lyon, Carriès was orphaned at age six and was raised in a Roman Catholic orphanage. He apprenticed with a local sculptor then in 1874 moved to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts under Augustin-Alexandre Dumont. He first showed at the Paris Salon of 1875 and gained considerable recognition for his sculpted busts at the Paris Salons of 1879 and 1881. However, after seeing an exhibition of Japanese works at the 1878 World's Fair in Paris, he began to devote himself to the creation of polychrome "Horror Masks".