Lydia Mei

Who was Lydia Mei?

Lydia Mei was an Estonian artist who specialized in watercolors and still lifes.

Born on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa, Lydia Mei was the middle child of the three daughters of a ship's captain. All three sisters would become artists, with Lydia Mei and Natalie Mei achieving public prominence during the Neue Sachlichkeit period of Estonian art of the 1920s and sister Kristine Mei becoming a sculptor.

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