- Hippolyte Lefèbvre
Hippolyte-Jules Lefèbvre (
Lille 1863 — 1935) was an academic French sculptor and medallist who received numerous official marks of recognition in his day but is now largely forgotten. His most prominent works are the monumentalequestrian sculpture s ofJoan of Arc andLouis IX of France , set up in [date] and 1927 before theBasilique du Sacré Cœur, Paris .He made his first studies at the École des Beaux-Arts, Lille. In 1882 he moved to Paris, where he was a pupil of
Pierre-Jules Cavelier ,Louis-Ernest Barrias andJules Coutan . He began exhibiting regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1887, and in 1892 won theGrand Prix de Rome in sculpture; on his return to Paris he pursued a successful official career. He was made a chevalier of theLegion of Honour , and an officer in 1925.Aside from Sacré-Coeur, his public sculpture is to be seen also at the
Grand Palais , Paris, where he received a gold medal at theExposition Universelle (1900) . His kneeling funeral figure of Léon-Adolphe Cardinal Amette, 1923, is in the Chapel of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul,Notre-Dame de Paris . He was called upon to provide sculpture for a number of monuments to the fallen of World War I.His work may also be found in the City Theatre, Lille; the "Allegory of the Republic" in the "cour d'honneur" of the French embassy in Vienna (built 1904; [ [http://www.ambafrance-at.org/visite/histoire.htm Histoire de l'Ambassade] ] a marble "Niobe" at the Tour de Roland, Arles; [ [http://www.patrimoine.ville-arles.fr/arles/ville.cfm?action=fiche_document_edifice&id_document=773&id=6 Ville d'histoire: Arles] ] and at the
Hôtel de Ville , Roubaix.Lefebvre was often called upon to make commemorative medals, such as one celebrating the centenary of Argentine independence, 1910; [ [http://www.finemedals.com/hippolyte_lefebvre6.htm Illustration] .] ; one commemorating Jules Gosset, for the Société des Sciences, Lille; one that the architect Louis Cordonnier, member of the "Institut de France", distributed to friends and colleagues, 26 January 1912; Fondation Firmin Rainbeaux, 1930. [ [http://www.finemedals.com/hippolyte_lefebvre11.htm Illustration] .]
A street commemorates him in Lille and a quai in
Mondeville .Notes
External links
* [http://www.old-master-drawings.com/lesoublies/HJLefebvre.htm Biography] (German)
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