A prominent Art Déco artist, Letourneur won first prize in the Grand Prix de Rome in 1926 and spent a few years in the ‘eternal city’.
His chance encounter with young Antonia was a coup de foudre which changed both their lives. René divorced his wife to marry Antonia, who joined him in Fontenay-aux-Roses in Paris where he lived and worked with Zwobada.
Classically trained at the French Academy in Rome, he sculpted imposing, curvy and provocative figures, as well as nudes of Antonia.