French painter. He took drawing lessons from the painter Benjamin Rolland (1777–1855) in Grenoble from the age of ten, but his father wished him to become a lawyer and in 1834 Hébert moved to Paris to study law. While there he also studied painting and drawing, first under Pierre-Jean David d’Angers and later under Paul Delaroche, and in 1836 he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His early paintings were portraits and landscapes of his native Dauphiné. In 1839, the year he passed his law exams, he won the Prix de Rome with the Cup of Joseph Found in the Sack of Benjamin (1839; Paris, Ecole N. Sup. B.-A.). Following this success his father allowed him to become an artist, and in 1839 he made his début at the Salon with Le Tasse in Prison Visited by Expilly (1839; Grenoble, Mus. Peint. & Sculp., on loan to La Tronche, Mus. Hébert). He arrived in Rome in January 1840 to study at the Académie de France. On his way to Italy he met the Comte de Nieuwerkerke. While there Hébert was in regular contact with his cousin, the novelist Stendhal, then consul at Civitavecchia, and became a friend of the composer Charles Gounod. The Director of the Académie on Hébert’s arrival was Ingres, who exerted a great influence on him, but Ingres was replaced later in the year by the less distinguished Victor Schnetz.