She received her early training in her hometown of Budapest, where she attended the School of Applied Arts, Tibor Gallé’s School of Drawing, and the Strasser Atelier. Her teachers included French surrealist Marcel Jean and painters Sandor Bortnyik and Aurel Bernath, former members of the Bauhaus.

At the age of 25, Clara joined the Hungarian Young Artists’ Movement of the “Café Revue” and was one of the “5 young people” who, in March 1945, gave rise to the first post-war art exhibition in the city destroyed by the world war.

After leaving Hungary in 1948, following a brief period in Rome, Clara moved to Uruguay and then to Brazil.

In São Paulo, she met and married Mauro Francini; there they actively participated in Brazilian artistic life with solo and group exhibitions, participating in the São Paulo Biennials and the Rio de Janeiro Modern Art Salons, receiving widespread critical acclaim, awards, and recognition. She devoted herself to theatrical activities as a costume and set designer, mainly at the Teatro Brasileiro de Comedia in São Paulo.

Returning to Europe in 1959, she lived in Paris with her husband Mauro Francini and their two children until 1962 and then in Milan, where she moved with her family, working as an editor at Mondadori, continuing to paint and exhibit until her death.

Works by Clara Heteny can be found in the Pinacoteca di Stato and the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo, the Museum of Fine Arts in Montevideo, and in numerous private collections in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Chile, the US, Canada, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Italy.