Rie, Dame Lucie

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RIE, DAME LUCIE

RIE, DAME LUCIE (1902–1995), British potter. Born in Vienna, the daughter of Benjamin Gomperz, a professor of medicine and a friend of Freud, Lucie Rie became a potter in the mid-1920s. She came to Britain with her husband, Hans Rie, in 1938, but after their divorce lived alone in London and worked at a studio in Bayswater. Her high standards made her one of the most famous potters in Britain and she was created a dame in 1990. Originally specializing in earthenware and jewelry, she later worked in stoneware and porcelain. Much of her later work was done in collaboration with her student and fellow refugee Hans Coper (1920–1981), a leading potter in his own right.

bibliography:

odnb online; T. Birks, Lucie Rie (1987); M. Coatts (ed.), Lucie Rie and Hans Coper: Potters in Parallel (1987); J. Houston (ed.), Lucie Rie: A Survey of Her Life and Work (1981); T. Birks, Hans Coper (1983).

[William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]