"He is the absolute master of the figure, he does what he likes with it—proceeding neither from the color nor the local tone but rather from the light—as Rembrandt did—there is an astonishing mastery in everything he does, above all excelling in modelling, he perfectly satisfies all that honesty demands.”

Lhermitte was a student in the atelier of Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran, the prized teacher of many academically-trained painters, including Alphonse Legros, Henri Fantin-Latour and Auguste Rodin.  He studied the works of fellow painters, who sought to establish their atelier outdoors, such as Corot, Millet, Daubigny and Breton, with whom Lhermitte often summered.  It was in Lecoq's studio that Lhermitte formed a lifelong friendship with the painter Jean-Charles Cazin.  Lhermitte and his brethren all adopted Lecoq's method of developing paintings from memory as a way of heightening perceptions.

Lhermitte's first entry to the Salon was in 1864 and he exhibited there with great acclaim throughout his extremely long career. He won his first medal for La Moisson in 1874. Other prizes and honors came to Lhermitte throughout his life, including the Grand Prix at the Exposition Universelle, 1889, the Diplôme d’honneur at Dresden in 1890, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 1884. He was a founding member of the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts.