Henry Moore and Gigi Richter first met in December 1945 in a visit arranged by the celebrated art dealer Curt Valentin. Richter was a picture conservator and between 1946-47 rented Moore’s studio at 7 The Mall, Hampstead which Moore had vacated in preference for Perry Green. The two were close friends and warm letters survive between them at this period. Richter was a German emigrant whose godfather was Thomas Mann. She was educated in England and America. She married David ‘Buzzy’ Crompton in 1949 and moved into a cottage owned by Crompton’s sister and fellow Henry Moore enthusiast Catherine Walston, where Richter began her second career as one of the country’s leading botanists.