Antoine Auguste Ernest Hébert

Antoine Auguste Ernest Hébert (1817, 1908) was a celebrated French Academic painter best known for his melancholic and idealized depictions of Italian peasant life, religious subjects, and portraiture. A student of Paul Delaroche, he won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1839 and spent significant time in Italy, where the landscape and its people profoundly influenced his work. He served twice as director of the French Academy in Rome and was widely admired during his lifetime for his luminous technique and poetic sensibility.