FAMOUS ARTISTLydia Mei
Lydia Mei was one of the first professional women artists in Estonia and the only major representative of Art Deco in Estonian art. Her oeuvre is a world of elegance, grace, and decorative beauty. Mei created refined portraits, nudes, genre scenes, and stylised compositions distinguished by impeccable linearity, flowing silhouettes, and exquisite colour harmonies. Her female figures — slender, graceful, radiating inner dignity — became icons of Estonian Art Deco. Mei also worked in the applied arts and book illustration, bringing to everything she touched a sense of style and beauty.
Lydia Mei was for a long time unjustly forgotten and all but erased from the history of Estonian art. Only in the twenty-first century, thanks to the efforts of art historians and curators, were her works rediscovered and accorded the recognition they deserve. Today Mei is regarded as a unique phenomenon within Northern European Art Deco, and her works are coveted exhibits for museums and collectors alike.
