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Louis-Philippe Hébert, of Acadian background, was born
in Sainte-Sophie-de-Halifax in 1850. At age 19, Hébert
left his parents' farm to join the Papal Zouaves, an
army created by the Catholic Church to defend Rome
against the forces of Italian unification. In Europe,
Hébert was exposed to a world of art and culture such as
he had never seen before. So inspired by what he saw,
upon his return to Canada, he went to work and study
under artist Napoléon Bourassa in Montreal, and for 6
years learned the art of sculpture. In the early 1880s,
Hébert began to receive commissions of his own, mostly
for work in churches, and mostly in wood. He was
becoming better known, however, and in a few years began
to receive commissions for public sculpture in bronze.
By the 1890s, he was acknowledged as the finest sculptor
of his day. Some of his more important commissions
included statues of John A. Macdonald and Queen Victoria
(Ottawa); Maisonneuve; Jeanne Mance; and Edward VII
(Montreal); Mgr. Laval (Quebec City); and the South
Africa War Memorial (Calgary). There were many others.
He is perhaps best known for the set of bronzes that
adorn the facade of Quebec's National Assembly. Hébert
also sculpted busts, funerary monuments, commemorative
medals, and statuettes for private clients. He worked in
wood and terra cotta, but his greatest achievements were
his works in bronze.
Hébert was recognized by his peers and the public. Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle, on a trip to Montreal in 1915, wrote
that he was "moved deeply" by the artist's work. Indeed,
he doubted "if we have any finer sculptor living."
Hébert's accolades were many. He was a Member of the
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1880), received a Medal
of Confederation (1894), and was made both a Chevalier
of the Legion d'honneur (France, 1901) and a Companion
of St. Michael and St. George (Britain, 1903).
Louis-Philippe Hébert, who died in 1917, is recognized
as one of the greatest artists this country has
produced.
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