Born in Loches in 1814, Julien-Léopold Lobin studied painting in Paris, then completed his training in Italy, where he studied religious painting.
His meeting with Father Plailly marked his beginnings in the art of stained-glass. In 1847 Julien-Léopold Lobin was appointed director of the workshop. He bought out the shareholders and opened the Lobin manufactory. Julien-Léopold Lobin drew the cartoons for the stained-glass windows of new commissions. His models were often people from the neighbourhood.
At the same time, he put in place a sales strategy, with a catalogue of the works on offer entrusted to sales representatives.
When he died in 1864, the manufactory was thriving and employed some seventy people, such as painters, glaziers and workers at the kiln and in the preparation of colours.