Katharina Brandis

Lady Katharina Brandis (born June 18, 1841 in Greifswald , † November 14, 1928 in Bonn ) was a German painter.

Life

Katharina Brandis was born as the daughter of Friedrich Rudolf Hasse , professor of church history at the University of Bonn , and his wife Cäcilie (born August 27, 1812; † unknown), a daughter of the musician and music collector Georg Poelchau .

She received her first lessons from well-known Bonn professor families and took drawing lessons from the university drawing teacher Christian Hohe .

In 1866 she met the widowed Dietrich Brandis (born March 31, 1824 in Bonn; † May 28, 1907 in Bonn), who was on vacation in Europe from 1865 to 1867; In 1864 he was appointed by Queen Victoria as the first general forest inspector of the entire Indian state forest. Their wedding took place in Bonn on January 11, 1867. Shortly after the wedding, they stayed in London for a few weeks and then returned to Bonn, only to travel on to Bombay on February 17, 1867 via Paris and from Marseille by ship . From there they went by train to Nagpur , on horseback to Jublepore and from there again by train to Allahabad . Katharina Brandis stayed with friends in Agra until May 1867 , while her husband continued to travel to Calcutta . He returned in May and they traveled together to their first home in Simla . She spent the first winter in India with friends in Ranchi , Calcutta, Allahabad and Delhi .

From November 1868 to March 1869 she accompanied her husband to Kangra , Lahore , Sind , Bombay and Delhi. The first daughter Cecilia Katharina was born in Simla in 1869.

Due to an illness of her husband, the family traveled to Europe to relax in 1871; During the crossing to Brindisi , Katharina also became critically ill, but after her recovery they were able to travel via Bologna and Florence to Bonn, which they reached on March 12, 1871. Shortly after their arrival, they had their second child, Joachim. born. Her health subsequently developed so seriously that her survival was no longer expected for a while. Not until 1872 did she slowly recover. Her husband was working in London during this period and she followed him to Richmond in 1872 ; their daughter Caroline was born there on March 18, 1873. On May 5, 1873, their daughter Cecilia Katharina died of severe scarlet fever in Richmond.

In 1874 the couple traveled back to India without their two children, who stayed with relatives in Godesberg and were later brought up in boarding school, and reached Bombay on April 3, 1874; until August 1874 they stayed in Calcutta. From September to November 1874 she accompanied her husband to the Himalayas .

The couple took their second residence in Dehradun , where their fourth child, Bernhard Friedrich, was born on January 15, 1875. Depending on the season, Katharina Brandis lived alternately in Simla or Dehradun, and at times also in Mahassoo, which was above Dehradun. On March 25, 1877, the fifth child, Maria Dorothea, was born. In 1879 she became so seriously ill that Katharina traveled with her to Europe. However, between Bombay and Aden , her daughter died and was buried in the sea. After a stay in Bonn with her two children, she returned to Simla on October 19, 1879. She spent the winter of 1879/80 with her husband in Calcutta, Darjeeling , Rangoon , Prome and Thoungzay. The sixth child, Martin Gerhard, was born in Simla on August 29, 1880.

On November 13, 1880, she traveled to Germany with her two sons and returned to India alone. Shortly before his retirement, Dietrich Brandis was raised to the nobility by the Queen of England together with his wife. After his retirement in February 1883, her husband returned to Europe and in the following years the couple lived alternately in Bonn and in Kew Gardens in London.

Since her arrival in India, Katharina Brandis recorded the impressions that the different landscapes made on her in watercolors, drawings and paintings. In 1876 she made a few trips in the area around Simla and produced numerous watercolors. Soon after moving to India, Katharina Brandis visited the Christianized tribe of the Kols and published her impressions in a series of reports in the Church Gazette of the evangelical community in Bonn.

She and her husband had seven children:

• Cecilia Katharina (born September 22, 1869 in Simla, † May 5, 1873 in Richmond);
• Joachim (born March 20, 1871 in Bonn, † 1914 died as a soldier at the outbreak of war);
• Caroline (March 18, 1873 in Richmond; † September 17, 1928);
• Bernhard Friedrich (January 15, 1875 in Dehradun; † January 14/15, 1935 in Leipzig), Reich judge, his son was the microbiologist Henning Brandis ;
• Maria Dorothea (born March 25, 1877, † 1879);
• Martin Gerhard (born August 29, 1880; † 1898 from appendicitis);
• Rudolf Johann (born March 26, 1887 in Bonn; † June 20, 1916 in Switzerland with tuberculosis), musically gifted; left behind a number of recognized compositions.

After Katharina Brandis died, she was buried next to her husband in the old cemetery in Bonn .

Trivia

Captain Oscar Kauffmann, who carried out four hunting expeditions in Burma and Burma between 1901 and 1909 and published books about them, wrote that Katharina Brandis was named the mother of the Forst Department .

Exhibitions and competitions

• From October 13, 2010 to February 27, 2011, an exhibition by the Bonn City Museum took place.
• On October 18, 2016, the Lady Katharina Brandis painting competition and the Sir Dietrich Brandis essay competition were held at the Vivekananda School. A total of 104 students from 28 schools took part.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dr. Krumme GbR - www.drkrumme.com: Lady Katharina Brandis - Botanical Gardens of the University of Bonn . ( uni-bonn.de [accessed on January 15, 2018]).
2. ^ Jochen Schmidt-Liebich: Lexicon of women artists 1700–1900: Germany, Austria, Switzerland . Walter de Gruyter, 2005, ISBN 3-11-095137-1 , p. 62 ( google.de [accessed June 4, 2018]).
3. ↑ Herbert Hesmer: Life and work of Dietrich Brandis 1824-1907: Founder of tropical forestry promoter of forest development in the USA Botanist and ecologist . Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-663-05531-0 , pp. 281 ( google.de [accessed June 4, 2018]).
4. ^ Federal City of Bonn: City of Bonn - Lady Katharina Brandis (Greifswald, 1841 - Bonn, 1928). Retrieved June 4, 2018 . 
5. ↑ October 2016 | Sir Dietrich Brandis Foundation Bonn. Retrieved on June 4, 2018 (German).