Charnay was born in Charlieu in the Loire, and moved to Paris in around 1865. He studied briefly in the studios of Feyen-Perrin and Pils, but was mainly self-taught, painting from nature and copying works by
Claude,
Poussin and
Daubigny. He exhibited at the
Salon from 1865. From 1871 he painted increasingly in the
Forest of Fontainebleau. A painter and
etcher of landscapes, he specialised in the depiction of old châteaux and their surrounding parks.