The son of a carpenter, Léon Parvillée was a French sculptor, architect, decorator, and ceramist. At the age of thirteen, he entered the École Royale Gratuite de Dessin in Paris, where he attended classes given by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, amongst others. Around 1854 he settled in the Ottoman capital Istanbul and opened a sculpture workshop for architectural decoration. In 1863, he joined the restoration works on the 14th- and 15th-century mosques in Bursa. A result of this endeavour was his richly illustrated book Architecture et décoration turque au XVe siècle published in 1874.
After more than a decade living in the Ottoman Empire, Parvillée returned to Paris in 1866. He was appointed ‘architecte de la commission impériale ottomane’ for the Ottoman pavilions at the Exposition Universelle of 1867 in Paris. At the fair, he also exhibited ceramics in an orientalizing style in the French section. From then until his death in 1885, ceramics remained the focus of his work. As a ceramist, he collaborated with numerous artists and manufacturers.

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Parvillée, L. (1874). Architecture et décoration turque au XVe siècle. A. Morel et Cie.