Albert Lebourg

(French, 1849-1928)

Albert Lebourg was a French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist landscape painter of the Rouen school. Born in Montfort-sur-Risle on February 1, 1849, Lebourg showed an early interest in architecture. He entered the École des Beaux-Arts of Rouen at a young age, also studying at L'Academie de Peinture et de Dessins in Rouen, and at the architecture studio of J.P. Laurens in Paris. Eternally inspired by landscapes, Lebourg spent his career painting scenes of the Seine River, Rouen, Paris, Auvergne, Normandy, Nanterre, and Île-de-France.

Lebourg created more than 2,000 Impressionist landscapes during his lifetime. His first exhibition took place in 1876, alongside Monet, Sisley and Renoir. He worked as a drawing professor at Société des Beaux-Arts in Algiers, where his work grew Impressionist in style under the influence of Jean Seignemartin, a painter of the Lyon school. Lebourg married in 1873, and remained in Algiers until he returned to Paris in 1877.

Lebourg exhibited 30 paintings and drawings alongside Monet, Pissarro and Degas during the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition of 1879. The following year, at the Fifth Impressionist Exhibition, he showed 20 paintings. In 1883, Lebourg’s painting Matinée à Dieppe was accepted to The Salon. In 1887 he exhibited alongside Pissarro, Morisot, Signac and Seurat at the acclaimed Les XX exhibition. He settled in Puteax, France from 1888-1895, where he became a member of the Société des Artistes Français.

In 1895, Lebourg moved to the Netherlands, where he would spend the next two years. He then returned to Paris and exhibited at the Mancini Gallery, where he won the Silver Medal at the Exposition Universelle in 1900. One of Lebourg’s most notable exhibits was a 1903 retrospective at the famed Gallerie Rosenberg in Paris, featuring 111 of his works. He also exhibited annually at The Salon.

A November 1909 exhibit at Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen featured 13 of Lebourg’s works, alongside Monet, Sisley, and Renoir. He was featured in the same museum again in 1918 alongside Bonnard, Matisse, Monet, Signac, and Vuillard. In 1921, a catalogue raisonné featuring 2,137 works was released.

His works are exhibited at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and other museums in France.