De Pédery-Hunt, Dora, 1913-2008 : Dora de Pédery-Hunt, sculptor and medallist, was born in Budapest, Hungary, on November 16, 1913, the middle of Attila de Pédery and Emilia Festl's three daughters. Dora graduated from the State Lyceum in 1932, and subsequently entered the Royal Hungarian School of Applied Art in 1937, where she earned an honours diploma, followed by a Master's degree in sculpture and design in 1943.
Her family fled Budapest in December 1944, and, after a brief sojourn in Dresden, made it to British-occupied Hanover by February of 1945. Both Dora and her father (a physicist) found work with the British occupation forces for the next three years, and the family was befriended by a Canadian officer, Major Thomas S. Chutter. He assisted Dora, who by then had married a Hungarian journalist, Béla Hunt, in relocating to Canada where she would work as an indentured servant to pay for passage. To improve her chances of being able to immigrate to Canada, Dora pretended that she was not married, and after her arrival in Montreal, she was sent to Toronto to work as a housekeeper for the Olson family. Several months later the Olsons welcomed the rest of Dora's family, as well as Béla Hunt. At that point Dora and Béla married for a second time, and Dora de Pédery became Dora de Pédery-Hunt. Until her parents and sister moved to Argentina in 1958, Dora was the main financial support for the family. Her husband's reluctance to take on menial labour resulted in marital conflict and the couple separated in the late 1950s, although they did not divorce until the early 1960s.
Owing to her familial responsibilities, Dora's first years in Canada were difficult ones financially, and she had little time to pursue her art. By 1950, however, her friendship with the sculptors Florence Wyle and Frances Loring, resulted in important opportunities for Dora to pursue her artistic activities. Loring and Wyle were instrumental in securing for her a job teaching sculpture in a vocational school, as well helping her gain the use of A.Y. Jackson's rooms in the Studio Building. By the early 1950s, the artist began receiving commissions from a variety of corporate and private clients and in 1953 Dora was elected a member of the Sculptors Society of Canada. At the same time, she was developing and patenting a sculptural casting medium and producing a line of Christmas ornaments and cards under the name "Dora Studios".
In 1958, inspired by a display of medals at the Hungarian pavilion at the World's Fair in Brussels, Ms. de Pedery-Hunt decided to work in that medium. Commissions for various medals rapidly followed. Participation in a Canadian National Exhibition show, with one of her cast medallions, led to her notice by the National Gallery of Canada Director, Alan Jarvis. With his support, de Pédery-Hunt was successful in receiving a Canada Council grant that enabled her to study in Europe for six months and further her skills. Subsequent to her return, she received a commission from the Canada Council, in 1961, to produce an art medal for them to be awarded annually. Other important medallic commissions followed. At the same time, the artist began receiving larger commissions, of a more architectural nature, completing many works of liturgical art (including Stations of the Cross, tabernacles and crucifixes) for religious orders throughout Ontario.
For over 20 years, de Pédery-Hunt was been instrumental in elevating the ancient art of medal making in Canada. Outstanding commissions included the 1967 Canadian Centennial Medal, the 300th Anniversary Hudson's Bay Company medallion, in 1968, and the 1976 Olympic gold coin. She captured, as well, the faces of prominent political and artistic figures including Lester B. Pearson, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Pauline McGibbon and Celia Franca.
Dora de Pédery-Hunt was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, a past president of the Sculpture Society of Canada and was the Canadian representative of La Fédération internationale de la Médaille. In 1974, she was awarded the Order of Canada and, in 1983, York University presented her with an honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters. Over a long career, the artist has received many international awards and her technically superb, sculptural works are housed in both public and private collections throughout the world.
She died in Toronto on September 29, 2008, and is survived by a niece and two nephews.
