Louis Richard Garbe [commonly known as Richard Garbe] was born in in Dalston, London, England, on 26 October 1876 and was the son of a manufacturer of ivory and tortoise-shell objet d'art . After being apprenticed to his father he was one of the first pupils at Central School of Arts and Crafts in London when it opened in 1896, following which he studied at the Royal Academy Schools in London from 1901 to 1904.

He worked as a sculptor in marble, ivory, bronze and other materials. He also taught sculpture at the Central School of Art and Crafts from 1901 to 1929 and at the Royal College of Art in London, where he was Professor of Sculpture from 1929 to 1946.

Between 1933 and 1939 he designed ceramics for Royal Doulton. In 1940 he moved to Barlaston in Staffordshire and was commissioned to produce designs for Wedgwood. He also designed furniture in collaboration with Gertrude Garbe and G. Garbe Jnr. A painted walnut cabinet with brass fittings, designed by Richard Garbe, with woodwork by G. Garbe, Junior, and with painted decoration by Richard and Gertrude Garbe is illustrated in 'The Studio Yearbook of Decorative Art' 1911 (p.84). A triptych with bronze panels and 'The Mask Dance', a decorative panel for a music room, designed and executed by Richard Garbe are illustrated in 'The Studio Yearbook of Applied Art' 1921 (p.97). A photograph of a lead fountain designed by Garbe is illustrated in 'Decorative Art' 1928 (p.171).

Garbe began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in London in 1898 and, with the exception of 1900, continued to do so every year until 1957, the year of his death. He also exhibited at the New Gallery, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and Royal Miniature Society in London; Leeds City Art Gallery; Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; Royal Birmingham Society of Artists; and at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. He also participated in the exhibitions of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society in London in 1899, 1903, 1906, 1910, and 1916.

He was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors (RBS) in 1909; an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1929; a Royal Academician (RA) in 1936; an Associate of the Royal Society of British Sculptors (RBS) in 1928; a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors (FRBS) in 1929; and a member of the Art Workers Guild in 1925. He was also a member of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society and a member of the Guild of Art Craftsmen. He was Master of the Art Workers Guild in 1938.

Garbe's address was given as 57 Dalston Lane, London in 1898 and 1906; Woodland Avenue, Great Nelmes, Hornchurch, Essex [now London] in 1908; St. Mildred Cottage, Wingletye Lane, Hornchurch, Essex [now London] in 1910 and 1912; Nelmes End, Wingletye Lane, Essex in 1915 and 1932; and Milton Way House, Westcott, near Dorking, Surrey in 1933 and 1957. When, during World War Two, the Royal College of Art was relocated to the Lake District, Garbe went with them and from 1941 to 1945 lived at Raise View, Grasmere, Westmorland, He died in Westcott, near Dorking in Surrey on 28 July 1957.

_{Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)}