Shipping from Europe with tracking number /50mm,84gr SILVER ,Paris mint by Coeffin
Josette Hébert-Coëffin (16 December 1907 Rouen – 3 June 1973 Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a French sculptor and the first female recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York in 1937
Hébert-Coëffin was born on 16 December 1906 in Rouen, France.[1] She was a student of Richard Dufour, Robert Wlérick, Charles Despiau[2] and Maurice Gensoli. She studied at the École supérieure d'art et design Le Havre-Rouen under the direction of Victorien Lelong, where she obtained a first prize in sculpture and architecture in 1922.[3] A few years later, she entered the studio of Alphonse Guilloux. She exhibited two busts, Beethoven and Resignation, at the 1927 Salon des artistes français.
She was the first recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York in 1937.[4][5] The same year, she creates models for the manufacture nationale de Sèvres. She obtained a gold medal at the 1937 World's Fair as well as a gold medal from the société d'encouragement pour l'industrie. She was elected as a member of the académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Rouen in 1938. Josette Hébert-Coeffin died on 3 June 1973 in Paris[1] and is buried in the Saint-Germain cemetery of Pont-Audemer, next to her husband Charles Coeffin, an industrialist and aviator, in a tomb surmounted by a grand-duc, her last unfinished work.
All of Josette Hebert Coeffin's works were destroyed during the bombing that devastated the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres three times on March 3, 1942. Hard hit, the artist resumed her work under the artistic direction of Maurice Gensoli. She sometimes amused herself by recalling that her membership in Sèvres gave her the right to wear the sword, according to the regulations of this factory, which date back to 1758.
From that time on, she was frequently inspired by fauna and proved to be a talented animal painter. Her fame grew. She soon realized La Biche et son faon for the President Vincent Auriol. The long sessions at the Jardin des Plantes in the intimacy of the animals taught her to know the particular character of the animals.
Another fruit of his stay at Sèvres was the development of his skills in the art of chamotte (stoneware chamotte) since 1937. She was looking for a suitable material to depict goat hair, hornbills, kiwis, and other feathers, and chamotte was the perfect choice. After perfecting this technique, Josette created large, more lifelike figures, such as a boar's head and a rooster.
She worked at the Monnaie de Paris where she developed her taste and technique as an engraver and medalist. The reverse of her medals was never merely decorative. It added a complement to the main subject, perfecting the work, according to a delicate inspiration. Josette Hébert-Coeffin made nearly three hundred medals, representing a considerable body of work.
Among these numerous medals, one will retain in particular that of the president René Coty, which made her the first woman, since the time of François 1er, to whom one had ordered the engraving of the effigy of the head of the State. Charles de Gaulle was the second president of the Republic to be medallioned by her during his mandate. It took many sessions of posing of General de Gaulle mostly without his knowledge. Once finished, the general told her about her medal, "When it comes to the last of your models, you will understand that I am not telling you about it... Your medal surpasses the few medals made, so far, on De Gaulle"[6]
There was also the medal of the 1968 Winter Olympics that she presented herself to General de Gaulle on January 6, 1968. This medal was the 161st of its creation. The athletes selected to represent their country received at the end of the Olympics this medal in memory of their participation. Finally, Jean Cocteau, for his medal, did not want any other medalist than Josette Hébert-Coeffin, so much he had liked the drawings of cats that she had exposed. Speaking of cats, she illustrated the book Chats des villes et chants des chats by Yahne Lambray and Renée Herrmann[7]