Auguste-Hyacinthe Debay, a son of the eminent sculptor Jean Baptiste Joseph Debay, though really a sculptor, began life as an historical painter. He was born at Nantes in 1804, and in 1817, when only thirteen years of age, sent his first portraits to the Salon. After studying under Gros, he obtained the 'Prix de Rome' in 1823. Soon after this he gave up painting for sculpture, which he studied under his father, and in which he was very successful. His death occurred in Paris in 1865. Some of his historical paintings are at Versailles.
This article incorporates text from the article "DEBAY, Auguste Hyacinthe" in Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers by Michael Bryan, edited by Robert Edmund Graves and Sir Walter Armstrong, an 1886–1889 publication now in the public domain.