Lucie Rie

Dame Lucie Rie (1902 - 1995)

Lucie Rie was a ceramicist born just after the turn of the century in 1902 into a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria. Her work is characterised by traditional techniques of simple but elegantly worked bowls, jugs and drinking vessels of porcelain and earthenware. In 1922 she enrolled at the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) where she began to learn the principles of pottery. Three years later she opened her own studio and began exhibiting at the Paris International Exhibition where, she was awarded the silver medal in 1937 and at the Brussels International Exhibition where she won the gold medal in 1935. 

In 1938 she was forced to flea Nazi Austria and emigrated to England where she settled in London. To support herself after separating from her husband Hans Rie in 1940, she diversified her practice to make ceramic buttons and jewellery to embellish the work of couture fashion houses. In 1946, along with fellow potter and Jewish refugee Hans Coper, Rie began making pots and vessels again and was later acknowledged for her skill in 1967 when Arts Council England mounted a retrospective of her work. Rie’s ceramics are distinguished by a collection of naturalistic processes, from the way she mixed her glazes, handled her clay and utilised techniques such as sgraffito (the process of scratching through the surface to reveal a contrasting colour). After 1967 she began to exhibit consistently both nationally and internationally and was subsequently made a Dame. Rie died in 1995 and has come to be regarded as one of the most influential potters of her generation. She is credited as an influential force in the work of contemporary potters such as Edmund de Waal.