(b Le Havre, 5 Nov 1845; d Hyères, c. 1935). French printmaker and painter. He was the son of the architect Charles-Louis-Fortuné Brunet-Debaines (1801–62), and he studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris before he studied painting under Isidore-Alexandre-Augustin Pils. He became interested in etching and engraving and took lessons with Maxime Lalanne, Charles Normand, Jules Jacquemart and Léon Gaucherel (1816–86). After encouragement from Johan Barthold Jongkind, he made his début at the Salon in 1866 with a number of etchings and watercolours. Thereafter he regularly sent works in both media to the Salon, his subjects being flowers, landscapes or architecture. A typical example is the etching of Nôtre Dame at Bourges (1869; Paris, Bib. N.). In 1869 he produced plates of the château at Saint Germain-en-Laye for the Gazette des Beaux-Arts (e.g. Chapelle St Louis at the Château St Germain, 1869; Paris, Bib. N.) and in 1871 provided engravings for A. de Bullemont’s Catalogue raisonné des peintures, sculptures et objects d’art qui décoraient l’Hôtel de Ville de Paris avant sa destruction (Paris, 1871). Many of the subjects for his etchings were taken from Paris, Bourgogne, Hyères and Normandy. Among the latter were several views of Rouen (e.g. Rue de l’Epicerie à Rouen, 1878; Paris, Bib. N.). From 1884 to 1897 Brunet-Debaines lived in Britain, and in 1878–9 and 1887–8 his views of London, Oxford and Edinburgh appeared in Portfolio. After a trip to Tunis, a number of his watercolours painted there were published in the London Art Journal in 1903. He also had work published in L’Illustration and Revue de l’art. In addition to his original work he made many etchings after paintings by Constable, Turner, Canaletto, Corot and others.

• Brunet-Debaines, Alfred-Louis
  • Le Havre