Helen Lessore

Helen Lessore OBE (31 October 1907 – 6 May 1994) was a British gallerist and the director of the Beaux Arts Gallery in London, England. She was also a painter.

Early life She was born Helen Brook on 31 October 1907 in London, England. Her father, Abraham Brook (c.1876–1944), had come to London from Lithuania. Her mother, Edith Berliner (1881–1935), was English, from a Frankfurt family of Spanish descent.

Brook studied at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1924 to 1928.

She married the sculptor and gallerist Frederick Lessore in 1934.

Career

Beaux Arts Gallery In 1931, she began to work as a secretary at the Beaux Arts Gallery, which was founded by the sculptor Frederick Lessore, on Bruton Place in London.

When Frederick died in 1951, Helen took over full directorship of the gallery. Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff held their first solo exhibitions at the gallery in 1956 and 1957, respectively. and the Royal Academy of Arts.

Recognition In the 1958 Birthday Honours, Lessore was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to the arts.