Lebourg came from a middle-class family and began by studying architecture at Rouen in a private practice. Then, under the influence of the painter Victor Delamarre and Gustave Morin, who was head of the municipal Art School at Rouen, he took up painting instead. An art collector from Algiers called Laperlier then took him back with him in October 1872 and he joined the staff of the School of Drawing attached to the Algiers Fine Arts Society. Apart from one visit to Paris, where he got married on 8 September 1873, Lebourg lived in Algiers until 1877, and there met a painter from Lyons called Seignemartin. Under his influence his painting grew increasingly light and bright, and, some time before Claude Monet, he started painting series of pictures on the same subject. These include The Admiralty (1875), Arab fantasia (1876) and Moorish cafe (1877). On his return to Paris in 1877 Lebourg discovered the Impressionists. After an initial reaction of surprise, he eventually joined their circle and showed at their exhibitions in I879 and 1880. This did not however prevent his exhibiting at the Artistes Francais and at the Nationale when it was first founded in 1890. Lebourg worked mainly in Paris, Rouen and in the Eure district. Like most of the Impressionists, he found ample inspiration in the outskirts of Paris, Sevres, Suresnes and Bougival. Almost every year, from 1884 to 1888, he also went to the Auvergne, and particularly to Pont-du-Chateau (Allier), a place he was very fond of. In 1896-1897  he travelled in Holland and then went to London and Switzerland. But his favourite places were still Paris and Rouen; he loved the banks of the Seine and rendered their soft misty atmosphere and transparent light effects with wonderful subtlety.

Based on Phaidon encyclopedia of Impressionism, Maurice Serullaz, Phaidon, 1978