Katarzyna Branicka

Countess Katarzyna Branicka, Katarzyna Potocka, née Branicka Korczak coat of arms (1825–1907) was a Polish noblewoman and art collector. Through her paternal grandmother, Aleksandra Branicka, she was a putative great-grandchild of Catherine the Great.[1] She had two sisters and four brothers, the eldest of whom was the French exile, financier and philanthropist, Count Xavier Branicki.[2]

Katarzyna Branicka
Katarzyna Potocka by Franz Winterhalter
Coat of arms	Korczak coat of arms
Born	10 December 1825 Luboml, Volhynian Governorate, Russian Empire (now in Ukraine)
Died	20 September 1907 (aged 81) Krzeszowice, Grand Duchy of Kraków, Austria-Hungary (now in Poland)
Noble family	Branicki
Spouse(s)	Adam Józef Potocki
Issue Róża Potocka Artur Władysław Potocki Zofia Potocka Maria Potocka Wanda Potocka Andrzej Kazimierz Potocki Anna Maria Potocka
Father	Władysław Grzegorz Branicki
Mother	Róża Potocka

Korczak CoA

She married Count Adam Józef Potocki on 26 October 1847 in Dresden. Chopin dedicated his Waltz in A-flat major to her. It was the last waltz by Chopin to be published in his lifetime. She was said to have been a great beauty and the subject of several portrait artists, including in 1854, the German painter, Franz Winterhalter.

Descendants

Jennah Karthes de Branicka, the German TV Middle East reporter, who also has Lithuanian ancestry, is among the last actual descendants of the Branicki family who are associated with immense wealth and infamy in Polish history.

References

1. Henryk Stanisław Mościcki (1936). "Branicka Aleksandra". Polish Biographical Dictionary (in Polish). 2. Kraków: Polish Academy of Learning – Skład Główny w Księgarniach Gebethner i Wolff. pp. 393–396. Reprint: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, Kraków 1989, ISBN 8304032910
2. Władysław Konopczyński, "Franciszek Ksawery Branicki”, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. II, Kraków: Polish Academy of Learning – Skład Główny w Księgarniach Gebethner i Wolff. 1936, p. 398.

Further reading

• Kenarowa, Halina. Ed. (pl) Maria Kalergi: Listy do Adama Potockiego. (translated from the French by Halina Kenarowa and Róża Drojecka) Warsaw, 1986.

Katarzyna Potocka (1850) by Ary Scheffer, National Museum, Warsaw