Louis-Philippe Hébert was born at Ste. Sophie d’Halifax, Lower Canada, the son of Theophile Hébert of Acadian origin and Julie Bourgeois of a French family who settled in Canada after the French Revolution. At the age of 19 he joined the Zouaves and served in Rome about 1869 and while in that city was able to study the various monuments and ancient treasures. He returned to Canada in 1871 and was inspired to follow sculpture as a career.
His cousin Edouard Richard lent him two busts he had brought from France and Hébert made copies of them in wood. He entered them in the Provincial exposition in Montreal where the town was noticed by the famous Napoleon Bourassa who took him into his studio as a pupil. Hébert assisted Bourassa in the decoration of the interior of Notre Dame de Lourdes over a four year period.
He went to Paris in 1879 the same year he married Maria Roy of Montreal. There he continued to study and work at his profession and returned to Canada in 1880. He did wooden statues for Saint Jacques Church at Swenton and bas-reliefs for the Bishop of Ottawa. He began to do historical subjects, a natural choice for him because of his love of history.
During his career he also did the following statues on Parliament Hill, Ottawa: Sir George Cartier, Queen Victoria, Sir John A. MacDonald as well as King Edward Vii Monument (Montreal), Queen Victoria (Hamilton) and several others. He designed historical figures for the legislative buildings at Quebec. Hébert was a prolific worker and produced in the neighbourhood of 50 works of outstanding accomplishment. An exhibition of his bronzes and baked clay statuettes was held at the Art Association of Montreal, March 1943. Hébert had much of his casting done in France and hired the noted French worker in bronze Monsieur Hohwiller to do the work.
Hébert’s sons became artists in their own right, Adrien a painter, and Henri a sculptor. During his career Louis-Philippe Hébert received many honours including the Canadian Government Confederation Medal (1894); Knight of the Legion of Honour (1901) and Knight of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great awarded by the Pope (1903). Hébert died at Westmount in June of 1917.
Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume II”, compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1979
