394 - Lucienne HEUVELMANS (1885–1944)

Lucienne HEUVELMANS (1885–1944) Virgin and Child, known as Our Lady of Hope Model created in 1928 Chryselephantine bronze statuette with brown patina and ivory (for the face and hands of the Virgin and the Infant Jesus) Signed “L. Heuvelmans” Dim. H. 29 cm Weight: 2268 Grs A slight crack in the ivory on the Child Jesus’s abdomen CITES No. FR2606200100-K issued by the DREAL on 10/01/2026 Appraiser: Cabinet Lacroix Jeannest Lucienne Heuvelmans trained in drawing and sculpture in her family’s cabinetmaking workshop before enrolling at the Académie Julian, where she studied under Denys Puech, and later attended the studios of Laurent Marqueste and Emmanuel Hannaux at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts. In 1911, she became the first woman to win the Grand Prix de Rome for sculpture and the first female resident at the Villa Medici. Upon her return from the Eternal City, Lucienne Heuvelmans set up her studio in the Hôtel de Rohan-Guémené in Paris, became a drawing instructor, and exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français and the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs. During the interwar period, she created several designs for the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, and her work turned toward ancient and religious iconography. In 1928, the sculptor created a Virgin and Child and the fourteen Stations of the Cross for the Church of Notre-Dame d’Espérance in Paris (11th arrondissement). The model of this Virgin tenderly embracing the Infant Jesus—who lightly touches his mother’s veil with his right hand—was widely reproduced in various sizes and materials, such as our chryselephantine miniature.