Gabrielle Hébert, Photography as a Chronicle of Life

The Musée d'Orsay presents an exhibition dedicated to Gabrielle Hébert (1853 - 1934), a French photographer of German origin and wife of painter Ernest Hébert. Active between 1888 and 1908, Gabrielle documented daily life at Villa Medici in Rome, where her husband served as director of the French Academy. Her photographs provide an intimate look into the artistic life of the time, portraying artists, models, and domestic scenes.​ The exhibition features original prints, albums, diaries, glass plate negatives, and her cameras, alongside works by Ernest Hébert and personal items that tell their love story. With over 3.500 prints, Gabrielle Hébert is considered a pioneer of female photography, having sensitively and precisely documented an artistic environment predominantly male.​