Life and Early Years Louis-Eugène Simonis was born in Liège, Belgium, on July 11, 1810. His father, Jean-Baptiste Simonis, was a professor of mathematics at the Université catholique de Louvain, while his mother, Marie-Thérèse Dubois, descended from noble families. From an early age, Simonis demonstrated exceptional artistic talent and pursued formal training diligently. He began his studies at the Liège École de Dessin between 1825 and about 1826, where he was taught by François-Joseph Dewandre (1758–1835), a respected sculptor who instilled in him a foundational understanding of classical…