Hippolyte Lefèbvre

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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 monumental equestrian sculptures of Joan of Arc and Louis IX of France, set up in [date] and 1927 before the Basilique 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 and Jules Coutan. He began exhibiting regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1887, and in 1892 won the Grand Prix de Rome in sculpture; on his return to Paris he pursued a successful official career. He was made a chevalier of the Legion 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 the Exposition 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;^[1] a marble Niobe at the Tour de Roland, Arles;^[2]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;^[3]; 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.^[4]

A street commemorates him in Lille and a quai in Mondeville.