British sculptor, born in Liepaja (also known as Libau) in Latvia. In her lifetime she made a mystery of her origins: it was long believed that she was born in 1906 in St Petersburg. The family moved to Tallinn in Estonia in 1912 and in 1920, as White Russians, they were encouraged to leave. After living in Berlin (1920–4) she moved to Paris, where she studied as a sculptor. In 1930 she moved to Singapore and in 1931 travelled through Malaya, Cambodia, and Thailand. She settled in London in 1935. In the following year, with her second husband, Richard Hare, whom she had first met in 1926 but refused to marry until she had established herself professionally, she moved into a specially designed house called ‘Dorich House’ on Kingston Hill.

Text source: A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art (Oxford University Press)


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