Charles Lebayle: life and works

Charles Lebayle (28 May 1856, in Paris – 22 January 1898, in Paris) was a French painter and designer, who is mostly known for his collaborations when stained glass makers.

His dad ran a window dressing and decorating company. At the age of fourteen, he began attending evening classes at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, where he became a student of Alexandre Cabanel and the sculptor Aimé Millet. After his father’s death, he became held responsible for his relatives and tried to preserve the business, but it ultimately failed.

His début at the Salon came in 1877. Rather than paintings, he exhibited works in stained glass; a opinion which came from his friend Henri Carot [fr], who would superior become a with ease known glass painter. He won a competition at the École des Beaux-arts in 1879, then studied oil painting subsequently Adolphe Yvon, in classes that were admission to the public.

In 1885, he worked at Autun Cathedral where he helped create a glass roof depicting the enthusiasm of the Virgin, from drawings by the architect Lucien Magne and decorator François-Émile Ehrmann [fr]. He then created the main window at the Vannes Town Hall, together subsequently Charles Champigneulle [fr].

A year later, he won the Prix de Rome for Claudius Proclaimed Emperor, and spent two years at the Villa Medicis. While there, he painted a mural at the Villa called “The Sea and the Shepherd”. However, none of the paintings he created during his stay were purchased by the French government, as was customary. Following this disappointment, he aimless his sister and mother.

When he returned to France, he took a viewpoint in the workshops of the well-known stained glass artist, Lucien Bégule [fr], and helped create windows for the Hôpital de la Charité in Lyon, most of which were destroyed subsequent to the building was demolished in 1933.

After making an unsuccessful attempt to state his own glass painting matter and a continuing failure to accomplish recognition as an artist in his own right, he became despondent and shot himself through the heart.