Natalie Mei (1900–1975)

Natalia May was born in 1900 in the family of a military ship captain. She has two older sisters, Lydia and Christina, who are also recognized as painters and sculptors.
In 1915, Natalia graduated from the Tallinn Women’s Gymnasium, after which she entered the Petrograd Women’s Polytechnic Institute. She studied painting at the School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts in Petrograd, and continued her studies in Tallinn under the guidance of the famous painter N. Triika. She held her first exhibition in 1919.
From 1920 she taught at the Tartu Pedagogical College. At the same time, she gained fame as a watercolorist. Her work has been exhibited in Amsterdam, Riga, Helsinki and Berlin.

Since 2021, she studied at the Pallas School, and to improve her skills, she improved her skills in the art centers of Western Europe.
Since 1929 she worked in the theater “Estonia” in Tallinn.

Since 1940 she taught at the Institute of Applied Arts of the Estonian USSR. Under her leadership, the famous artist Eldor Renter was formed.
She died in 1965. Online sale of paintings by Natalia Mei launched at the Rios Art Gallery.