Background
Dora de Pédery was born in Budapest, Hungary 16 November 1913.
Dora de Pédery was born in Budapest, Hungary 16 November 1913.
She was the first Canadian citizen to design an effigy for Queen Elizabeth World War II She trained at the Royal School of Fine and Applied Arts in Budapest, receiving a Masters Diploma in Sculpture in 1943. After German forces occupied Hungary in March 1944, her family decided to flee west, fearing the Soviet advance from the east. They arrived in Hannover not long before its fall to the Allied forces.
Five years later, through the sponsorship of Major Thomas South. Chutter, she immigrated to Canada.
She died from colorectal cancer in Toronto, Ontario on 29 September 2008. In 1963, she was elected to the Ontario Society of Artists.
She was elected to the Sculptors Society of Canada. She taught sculpture at the Ontario College of Art
She created the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II that was used on Canadian coinage in 1990.
Her medal design of Sir Donald Alexander Smith was used by Canada Post as a six cent postage stamp.
Two of her portraits of Doctor Frances Loring are in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada. Besides the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II, various Royal Canadian Mint gold coins with a face value of one hundred dollars were designed. The J. B. Harkin medal for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society
Canadian Government official medal for Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan
John Drainie Award medal for the Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists
The Reach for the Top Award for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The 1981 Canadian Numismatic Association Convention Medal
The A. J. Casson Award for the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, in 1991.
With the collaboration of the Toronto Historical Society, she designed a medal for the city of Toronto"s bicentennial in *1993.
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts]
She was a founding member of the Canadian Portrait Academy and the Medallic Art Society of Canada. She was a member of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.