Camille Hilaire was born in Metz in 1916. From a modest background, he first became a house painter, then began drawing and painting on the spot.

Unwilling to be drafted by the German army as an Alsatian-Lorrainer, he went underground and enrolled under an assumed name, Leblanc, at the Beaux-Arts in Paris during the Occupation. It was during this period that he befriended André Lhote.

In 1947, Hilaire was appointed professor of drawing and decorative composition at the École nationale supérieure d'art de Nancy, a position he held until 1958. He competed for the Prix de Rome in 1950, winning 2nd runner-up prize. From 1950 to 1951, he was a resident at Casa de Velázquez in Madrid.

Alternating between post-cubism and figuration, his brightly colored works are luminous. Camille Hilaire represented the nuanced expression of composition. Starting with effective structures, he harnessed the power of color and achieved an admirable and constant sense of calm, breadth and grandeur in translating motifs and elements, which never prevented him from expressing a burning passion for creating and sharing.

As for landscapes, Hilaire knew how to dictate their structure without apparent constraint, adding the fresh, piquant green that so often characterized him. In this way, nature and the elements became a pretext for the artist to push color to achieve the desired effect.

He died at his mansion in Fourges, Eure (Normandy), and was buried in the Cimetière de l'Est (Metz) in 2004.