Frances Grun

Frances Grun (* 1874 in London ; † September 1946 in Oberursel ) was a German-English writer.

Life

Frances Grun was the third child of the tea merchant Robert Grun from Königsberg / Prussia and his wife Maria geb. Horneffer was born in London. Siblings were James, Eleanor and Constance Grun. She grew up in London, then in 1888 came to Frankfurt with her mother's relatives with her mother and siblings. While brother James started studying at the Hoch Conservatory, the two older sisters only received private tuition for 2 years before they began studying at the Hoch Conservatory. In the Conservatory yearbooks, Eleanor and Frances are listed for voice, and James for piano. When she was fifteen, Frances wrote her first delicate, powerful and imaginative poems.

In Frankfurt, the siblings soon found themselves in a circle of interesting, ingenious and dear people and came to the studio of the great painter Hans Thoma in Wolfsgangstraße and established a warm friendship with the Thoma family. They played a lot with Thomas, and Frances, who was very impressed by Hans Thomas' art, composed motifs for the piano for his pictures, which Thoma and all the audience liked very much. During these years, Frances also became close friends with Anna Hauck, a young girl of the same age whom she had met in Veitshöchheim near Würzburg. The friendship lasted for a whole generation until Anna Hauck's death in Bamberg in January 1946.

After a series of very beautiful and sometimes difficult years in Frankfurt am Main, to the greatest pain of the siblings, the mother, loved and adored above all, died there. The three sisters and their mother's siblings moved to Ostend by the sea for a few years. Brother James had already moved to London and married Alice Dessauer there, a long-time student of Clara Schumann . He died in 1925 as a result of a traffic accident.

After returning to Germany in autumn 1901, this time to Oberursel am Taunus, Frances began to write larger works. Through an invitation from Agathe Thoma to the three sisters around Christmas time 1904, they got together again with master Hans Thoma in Karlsruhe, in whose life a painful gap had emerged due to the death of his beloved wife Cella in November 1901.

Hans Thoma, inwardly lonely and discouraged, took a deep affection for Frances, who with her sunny, cheerful nature bore an astonishing resemblance to Cella Thoma. Thoma once wrote to Frances: “You are the image of my deceased Cella, that's how she was in her youth.” Hans Thoma changed rings with Frances and became engaged to her on May 19, 1905.

However, the difference over the years made itself felt and Hans Thoma and Frances decided to renounce the earthly connection. However, Frances remained connected with Hans Thoma in loyal love and friendship until the master's death. Frances should have a full share in his artistic plans and in his work: he told her everything that moved him and wished that both should always keep their rings. An extensive correspondence took place between these two great-feeling people during the nineteen years of friendship up to the Master's death. Thomas' death on November 7, 1924 was felt by Frances heavily and tore a void in her life that could never be completely filled. Frances remained on friendly terms with Agathe Thoma until Agathe's death on October 29, 1928.

Frances gave photographic lectures about Hans Thoma and his art, first in Switzerland, in Bern, in Solothurn, Herzogenbuchsee and Grenchen, also in Oberursel for the benefit of the Red Cross and in Frankfurt three lectures to celebrate Hans Thomas' hundredth birthday in 1939.

At the end of 1912, the three sisters moved to Bad Kreuznach out of health considerations, and when the World War broke out in 1914, they hurried back to Frankfurt to visit dear relatives. They then stayed in Frankfurt, where, to the great suffering of Frances and Eleanor, their beloved sister Constance died in July 1934.

Frances and Eleanor spent the Second World War with dear friends in Oberursel am Taunus. Frances died unexpectedly and quickly in the arms of Eleanor as a result of a stroke in Oberursel in September 1946 and is now resting with her beloved mother and sister Constance in the hereditary grave at the main cemetery in Frankfurt am Main.

Works

• Thorolf and the werewolf or the fight in Rogaland. Old Norse drama in three acts and a prelude. By Frances Grun with 4 drawings by Constance Grun. Print Wüsten & Co. Frankfurt 1916. ( digitized version )

• Magic forest. Pictures by Hans Thoma, poems by Frances Grun. Printing and publishing house Kunstanstalt Wüsten & Co, Frankfurt a. M. 1917 ( digitized version )

• The mountain spirit. Drama in four acts and one prelude. By Frances Grun with pictures by Hans Thoma. Print Wüsten & Co. Frankfurt 1919.

• Heinrich and Kunigundis. Müsterium in four acts. By Frances Grun, 1924, edited by Eleanor Grun, printed by W. Kramer & Co. Frankfurt 1950.

• St. Henry and St. Kunigundis. A Miracle Play in 4 Acts. Adaptation by Frances Grun in English 1946.

• Hans Thoma and Frances Grun. Memoirs of Frances Grun. Published by Walter Kreuzburg. Printed by Waldemar Kramer Frankfurt 1957.

• World of the soul. A call of neo-romanticism in poems by Frances Grun. Published by Walter Kreuzburg. Printed by Franza Rowold Oberursel am Taunus 1959.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Excerpt from: A brief overview of the life of Frances Grun by Eleanor Grun, Heinrich and Kunigundis, Verlag W. Kramer & Co. Frankfurt 1950, pages 80 to 82.