Born in Montfort-sur-Risle, Lebourg is considered to be a major artist of the Normand School. Lebourg began his artistic education at the École des Beaux-Arts in Rouen, then continued his training at the École des Beaux-Arts at Bris and completed it by training in an architect’s studio. After his meeting with the famous collector and connoisseur Laperlier, he was appointed Professor of Graphic Art at the School of Fine Art in Algiers, where he lived between 1872 and 1876.
On his return to France he travelled extensively in Normandy, especially along the Seine, painting around Bougivalle, Rouen, Hondouville and Honfleur. Lebourg joined the Impressionistic movement early in its inception and participated in the group’s fourth and fifth exhibitions in 1879 and 1880. As Monet and Sisley were later to do, he often painted the same motif in different lights.
Lebourg was first admitted to the Salon in 1883. In 1884 he lived and worked in the Auvergne, and between 1886 and 1895 he lived alternately in Paris and Rouen. In 1896 the Mancini Gallery in Paris staged an important exhibition of his drawings, watercolours and oil paintings which met with great critical success.
In 1900 Lebourg exhibited at the World Fair and in 1918 a large retrospective exhibition of his work was held at George Petit’s gallery in Paris. Lebourg was made Chevalier de laLégion d’Honneur in 1903.
