Louis Charles Auguste Steinheil
1814–1885 · French painter, glass painter and church decorator
Louis Charles Auguste Steinheil (Strasbourg, 1814 - Paris, 1885) was a French painter who worked in nearly every medium, though he devoted particular attention to glass painting and church decoration. Born in Strasbourg, he studied with Henri Decaisne, and his reputation rests mainly on this religious and decorative work rather than on easel painting.
Among his works are Saint Philomela (1841) and Mother (1847), the latter held by the Nantes Museum. Together with Alexandre-Dominique Denuelle he was commissioned to paint the chapel of Our Lady of Guadeloupe, consecrated in September 1865 and built in Biarritz for Empress Eugénie beside her Villa Eugénie. In 1876 he received commissions for frescoes in Strasbourg Cathedral, in his native city.
His legacy lies chiefly in this body of stained glass, chapels and religious frescoes, in which he brought several techniques to bear on nineteenth-century sacred architecture.