Born: 4 July 1825, France
Died: 20 April 1909
Country most active: France
Also known as: Joséphine Charlotte Hélène Pilate
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Hélène Hébert Bertaux, a French sculptor, born in Paris. She was the founder and president of the Society of Woman Painters and Sculptors, and for fifteen years was a member of the jury on sculpture in the Society of French Artists.
Hélène Hébert Bertaux’s Sculpture “Psyche in the Realm of Mystery”Among the most noteworthy of her works are a bronze group for a public fountain at Amiens; the statue of Chardin (1881) on the façade of the Hôtel de Ville, Paris; and her masterpiece, Psyche in the Realm of Mystery, which was awarded the gold medal at the Paris Exposition of 1889 and is now in the museum of Cette.s.
IW note: Bertaux also served as the first president Union des femmes Peintres et Sculpteurs (Society of Woman Painters and Sculptors) from its founding in 1881 until 1894, when she resigned to dedicate her efforts full-time to pushing the École des Beaux-arts to admit women, which it finally did in 1897.