Marianne Brandt (1893-1983)

“... [H]er completed pieces and designs can be counted among the best work of the Bauhaus; most of the models adopted by industry for serial manufacture are by her.”

— Walter Gropius and László Moholy-Nagy

Marianne Brandt received an invitation and began her studies at the Bauhaus in Weimar in 1923. Before joining the Bauhaus, she studied painting and sculpture at the Grand Ducal Saxon College of Visual Arts and ran her own studio. After the completion of her preliminary courses, she was asked to join the metal workshop by the department head, László Moholy-Nagy. She was only the second woman to apprentice in the metal workshop as the school more than encouraged its female students to join the weaving, bookbinding, and pottery workshops. She received a less-than-warm welcome from the other metalworkers.

Marianne Brandt - Tea Infuser and Strainer, 1924. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY

As her skills improved, these marks became less visible, which is evident in the one owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2007, one of Brandt’s tea infusers sold at auction for $361,000 beating the record for the most expensive item sold from the Bauhaus.

When the Bauhaus relocated to Dessau Germany in 1925, Brandt in collaboration with Hans Przyrembel designed the lighting for the school’s interior. There she designed other light fixtures in collaboration with other artists and independently. In 1928, Brandt became the director of the metal workshop after Maholy-Nagy left the school. As the director, she was now responsible for sourcing manufacturers to produce the works designed at the Bauhaus. Brandt was successful in securing these contracts for the school and her lamp designs proved to be most popular. Her success, however, only led to allegations from jealous peers, and in 1929 Brandt decided to leave the Bauhaus to work for Bauhaus founder and former director Walter Gropius at his architecture firm.

self-portrait of Marianne Brandt — Self-portrait and montage of Marianne Brandt in 1931. Photograph: Marianne Brandt, source unknown.

But Brandt persevered, and during her first year in the metal workshop she designed and executed the tea infuser MT 49. This design has become a Bauhaus icon for its simple geometric forms and contrasting materials of ebony and silver. Unlike some of her other designs which were mass-produced, the tea infuser MT 49 wasn’t and only a small number of them were made by hand. The oldest of this kind is believed to be the one owned by the British Museum which shows several hammer marks.