Josette Hébert-Coëffin

Hébert-Coëffin was born on 16 December 1906 in Rouen, France.^[1] She studied at the École supérieure d'art et design Le Havre-Rouen under the direction of Victorien Lelong and earned first prize in sculpture and architecture at age 16 in 1922.^[2][3] She was later a student of Robert Wlérick and Charles Despiau in Paris.^[4] She later studied under Richard Dufour and worked in Alphonse Guilloux's studio.^{[citation needed]}

In 1927, Hébert-Coëffin exhibited two busts, Beethoven and Resignation, at the Salon des artistes francais.^{[citation needed]} In 1937, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship^[5][6] and created models for the manufacture nationale de Sèvres. She also won gold medals at the 1937 World's Fair and the société d'encouragement pour l'industrie.^{[citation needed]} She was elected to the académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Rouen the following year as the third female member after Colette Yver and Louise Lefrançois-Pillion. In 1939, she showed her work at the Salon des Arts Décoratifs.^[6][7] Between 1938 and 1947, she worked under Maurice Gensoli.^[7] Much of her work was destroyed during bombings that devastated the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres in March 1942. At this time, she began developing skills in chamotte (stoneware chamotte), as she found it suitable for depicting goat hair, hornbills, kiwis, and feathers. She drew much of her inspiration from fauna.^{[citation needed]} In 1948, she painted La Biche et son faon^[7] for President Vincent Auriol^{[citation needed]} and in 1950 illustrated the book Chats des villes et chants des chats by Yahne Lambray and Renée Herrmann.^[8]

Hébert-Coëffin spent time at the Monnaie de Paris learning to become a medallist. Throughout her career, she made nearly 300 medals, including one for René Coty. She was the first woman to be commissioned to create a medal for a head of state since the time of François the 1st^{[citation needed]} She also created a medal for Charles de Gaulle.^[9] In 1968, she presented de Gaulle with a medal in honor of the Winter Olympics. The medal was later awarded to the French national team. Jean Cocteau requested her specifically for the creation of his medal^{[clarification needed]} after seeing her drawings of cats.^{[citation needed]}

Hébert-Coëffin was married to industrialist and aviator Charles Coëffin.^{[citation needed]} She died on 3 June 1973 in Paris^[1] and is buried next to her husband in Pont-Audemer's Saint-Germain Cemetery. She is surrounded by a grand-duc, her last unfinished work.

• 1934: Bouctot Prize (fine arts), Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Rouen
• 1936: Silver Plaquette, 21st annual competition organized by the Société d'encouragement à l'art et à l'industrie
• 1937: Gold medal, Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne
• 1937: Guggenheim Fellowship
• 1938: Membership, Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Rouen
• Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour
• Knight of the National Order of Merit
• Knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
• Knight of the Order of Cultural Merit (Monaco)

• Jean-Jacques Pinel, Histoire de 140 familles. Témoignages de 70 descendants. 2 siècles d'industrie à Rouen, Rouen, 2008
• Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, tome 3, 1976 et 1999, page 91
• Edward Horswell, Sculptures of Les Animaliers 1900 – 1950, Scala Arts and Heritage Publishers Ltd, Londres, 2019 (exposition Sculptures of Les Animaliers 1900 – 1950, Sladmore gallery Londres, 2019)
• Pierre-Maurice Lefebvre, Hommage à Josette Hébert-Coëffin (1907–1973),^[26] Précis analytique des travaux de l'Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Rouen année 1973, Fécamp, Édition L. Durand & Fils, 1975
• Josette Hébert-Coëffin sculpteur et médailleur, Éditions Sciaky, Paris, 1974
• Robert Rey, Josette Hébert-Coëffin, Édition les Gémeaux, Paris, 1954
• Visite à l’atelier de Mme Josette Coeffin, sculpteur à la Manufacture de Sèvres, UNF. Union nationale des femmes : revue des électrices, Paris, 1 février 1946^[27]