His father Louis Hippolyte Lebas was a famous architect. Louis’ uncle, Antoine Vaudoyer and cousin Léon Vaudoyer, were architects of even greater renown, both having won the first grand prix of Rome architecture, entitling them to a stay at the expense of the State in the Eternal City. Louis, was taught by his uncle Antoine Vaudoyer and then later by Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine. He worked alongside of Pierre-Adrien Pâris, Pierre Fontaine and Eloi Labarre. He won competitions for the construction of Notre-Dame de Lorette church in Paris and the prison of little Roquette.
The work of Gabriel Hippolyte Labas hints at the influence of the architectural dynasty into which he was born. However, while the French neoclassic architects found the work of the ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians seminal, Le Bas seemed to draw more from what directly inspired the ancients; the architecture of nature.
The architects and artists of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt created magnificent works that celebrated man’s achievements, beliefs and conquests over the enemies of survival. Works that made the statement: “we are not only surviving, we are thriving”.
The art and architecture of these times evoke a feeling of defiance. They both mirrored and contrasted the natural surroundings: the pyramids were mountains on the plains; tall obelisks and columns, trees in a city; the acropolis, a man-made Mount Olympus.
The classical eras were a glorious celebration of man’s accolades, conquest and mastery of nature. Hence the people and anthropomorphized gods secure the positions of prominence in much of the classic and neoclassic work.
Rarely do manmade structures appear in the works of Le Bas and when they do they appear as aesthetic ruins that have been reclaimed by nature, thus now part of it. It is almost as if, that by reclaiming the manmade structures, nature has been inspired by man and is now creating, mirroring and in defiance of his works.
The same could be said for the people that sparsely populate his work, that is to say, they too, appear to be reclaimed by a more humble status. His people are common folk. They are no more than another part of the landscape that they help to complete. They are blurred, distant and ill-defined, as if a memory or a dream.
His watercolors and oil paintings contrast the human congestion of 19th century Paris with the romance of solitude; they seem to demote the human importance that had been glorified to the level of near *narcissism by classic and neoclassic works. For many, the works of Le Bas evoke feelings of being at peace with, coexisting with, being part of and belonging to the depicted surroundings; a spiritual and physical equality.
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