Lalla Vandervelde

Lalla Vandervelde (1870–1965), was a British-Belgian socialite and patron of the arts. She was married to Émile Vandervelde, the former minister d'etat of Belgium, and had close relationships with several influential artists and writers of the early twentieth century, including Roger Fry. Early life Lalla Vandervelde was born Charlotte Helen Frederica Maria Speyer in Camberwell, England in 1870. Her father, Edward Speyer (1839–1934), was a wealthy businessman and patron of music. Her grandfather, Wilhelm Speyer (1790–1878), was a German-Jewish composer. Vandervelde's mother, Helen Franziska Forsboom of Frankfurt, Germany, died in 1882, when Vandervelde was twelve years old. In 1885, Edward Speyer remarried to Antonia Kufferath, the daughter of German composer Hubert Ferdinand Kufferath. Vandervelde lived in Brussels for much of her adult life until the outbreak of World War I.