Dollard des Ormeaux

The depiction of important Canadians was a theme that dominated Hébert’s work. Drawing from Louis Fréchette’s poem “La Légende d’un peuple” (1887), the artist portrays Adam Dollard des Ormeaux (1635–1660) in the midst of the Battle of Long Sault (1660) against the Iroquois. Dollard des Ormeaux was a relatively forgotten historical figure until the Quebec clergy reinstated him as a French-Canadian nationalist hero in the 1920s.