Lydia Mei (2 July 1896 – 14 September 1965) was an

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

artist who specialized in watercolors. Born in

Liepāja Liepāja () (formerly: Libau) is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Courland region and the third-largest in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an ...

, in the

Courland Governorate Courland Governorate, also known as the Province of Courland or Governorate of Kurland, and known from 1795 to 1796 as the Viceroyalty of Courland, was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(now

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

), Lydia Mei was the middle child of the three daughters of an

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ship's captain who was born in

Hiiumaa Hiiumaa ( , ) is the second largest island in Estonia and is part of the West Estonian archipelago, in the Baltic Sea. It has an area of 989 km2 and is 22 km from the Estonian mainland. Its largest town is Kärdla. It is located within ...

. All three sisters would become artists, with Lydia Mei and Natalie Mei achieving public prominence during the

Neue Sachlichkeit The New Objectivity (in ) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle'' in Mannheim, who used it as the title of ...

(New Objectivity) period of Estonian art of the 1920s and sister Kristine Mei becoming a sculptor. Mei studied architecture at the

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

Women's Polytechnic Institute until 1918. But she became famous as a watercolorist in late 1920s. She married sculptor Anton Starkopf and is occasionally credited with the name Lydia Mei-Starkopf. She died in 1965 in the capital city of

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

References

*Pihlak, Elvi: "''Lydia Mei - Natüürmortide ja lillemaalide meister''" in: ''Kunst'' Vol. 1962,1 pgs 16–20. Tallinn.

External links

Self Portrait (1931)
retrieved May 3, 2007

retrieved May 3, 2007 1896 births 1965 deaths People from Liepāja People from Courland Governorate 20th-century Estonian painters Soviet artists Sibling artists 20th-century Estonian women painters {{Estonia-artist-stub