Katrine Harries (1914-1978), was born in Berlin. Her father was killed in action two weeks before her birth. After completing her junior school education Katrine attended art schools for seven years. By this time (1938), Hitler's oppression of Jews was becoming more widespread, and as Katrine's mother was of Jewish descent they decided to follow other members of the family to South Africa where they arrived in July 1939. After a few difficult years in Cape Town during which Katrine supported herself and her mother by painting designs on stinkwood ornaments, she gradually started establishing herself as an illustrator and an artist. She did illustrations for "Sarie Marais" and "Die Huisgenoot" for many years, and there is a large collection of cuttings of the stories with their accompanying illustrations. She illustrated over sixty books in the course of 36 years and the collection contains many of her original drawings, especially for the series of "Afrikaanse Sprokies" by Pieter W Grobbelaar. Concurrent with her career as an artist/illustrator, Katrine Harries lectured at the Michaelis School of Fine Art from 1949 - 1977, on a part-time basis until 1950 and thereafter as a full-time lecturer.