Lombard was born on 22 August 1865 in Le Grand-Saconnex, canton of Geneva, Switzerland.[6] She spent her childhood in France before returning to her native country in 1879, when her father was appointed pastor in Auvernier.[6] Encouraged by him, Lombard began studying drawing at the age of fourteen with sculptor and medalist Fritz-Ulysse Landry, then studied painting under Gustave Jeanneret.[6] From 1888 onwards, she exhibited regularly at the Société des Amis des Arts in Neuchâtel.[6] Lombard continued her training in the 1890s in the studio of portrait painter Jean-Louis Loubet in Lyon, where she received an honorable mention at the city's Salon, and then pursued further studies in Paris with the painters Rodolphe Julian and Marie Krug.[6]
A devout Protestant, Lombard was involved in several social causes, including the League of Swiss Abstinent Women.[6] Beginning in 1907, she produced a series of paintings depicting the Huguenot experience in France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which solidified her reputation.[6] Faced with the exclusion of women from the Swiss Society of Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Lombard co-founded the Neuchâtel section of the Swiss Society of Women Painters and Sculptors in 1908.[6] She served as its secretary from 1909 to 1933 and became an honorary member in 1941.[6] Lombard died on 6 December 1945 in Corcelles, canton of Neuchâtel, aged 80.[6]
