A landscape painter in styles ranging from representational to impressionist, Herbert Barnard was born in Belmont, Massachusetts and studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts where, in 1877 he was in the first class of that school. From 1885 to 1889, he studied in Paris at the Academie Julian with Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre.

Exhibition venues included the Art Institute of Chicago, the Boston Art Club and the National Academy of Design. In Boston from 1890 to 1899, he had a studio in the Harcourt Building. He was a member of the St. Botolph Club and the Boston Water Color Club. From 1890 to 1899, he was a teacher at Bradford College.