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George Sand
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Sand sewing, by Delacroix, 1838.
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George Sand
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Amantine (also "Amandine") Aurore Lucile
Dupin, later Baroness (French: baronne)
Dudevant (1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876),
best known by her pseudonym George Sand
(French pronunciation: [ʒɔʁʒ sɑ̃d]), was
a French novelist. She is considered by
some a feminist, though she refused to
join this movement. She is regarded as
the first French female novelist to gain
a major reputation.
Early life
Sand's
father, Maurice Dupin, was the grandson
of the Marshal General of France,
Maurice, Comte de Saxe, himself an
illegitimate son of Augustus II the
Strong, King of Poland and a Saxon
elector, and a cousin to the sixth
degree to the kings of France Louis XVI,
Louis XVIII and Charles X.[2] Sand's
mother, Sophie-Victoire Delaborde, was a
commoner. Sand was born in Paris but
raised for much of her childhood by her
grandmother, Marie Aurore de Saxe,
Madame Dupin de Franceuil, at her
grandmother's estate, Nohant, in the
French province of Berry (See House of
George Sand). She later used the setting
in many of her novels. It has been said
that her upbringing was quite liberal.
In 1822, at the age nineteen, she
married Baron Casimir Dudevant
(1795–1871), illegitimate son of Baron
Jean-François Dudevant. She and Dudevant
had two children: Maurice (1823–1889)
and Solange (1828–1899). In early 1831,
she left her prosaic husband and entered
upon a four- or five-year period of
"romantic rebellion." In 1835, she was
legally separated from Dudevant and took
her children with her.
Portraits of George Sand
Contemporary views
Sand's reputation came into question
when she began sporting men's clothing
in public — which she justified by the
clothes being far sturdier and less
expensive than the typical dress of a
noblewoman at the time. In addition to
being comfortable, Sand's male dress
enabled her to circulate more freely in
Paris than most of her female
contemporaries, and gave her increased
access to venues from which women were
often barred — even women of her social
standing.
Also
scandalous was Sand's smoking tobacco in
public; neither peerage nor gentry had
yet sanctioned the free indulgence of
women in such a habit, especially in
public (though Franz Liszt's paramour
Marie d'Agoult affected this as well,
smoking large cigars). These and other
behaviors were exceptional for a woman
of the early and mid-19th century, when
social codes—especially in the upper
classes—were of the utmost importance.
As a
consequence of many unorthodox aspects
of her lifestyle, Sand was obliged to
relinquish some of the privileges
appertaining to a baroness — though,
interestingly, the mores of the period
did permit upper-class wives to live
physically separated from their
husbands, without losing face, provided
the estranged couple exhibited no
blatant irregularity to the outside
world.
Poet
Charles Baudelaire was a contemporary
critic of George Sand: "She is stupid,
heavy and garrulous. Her ideas on morals
have the same depth of judgment and
delicacy of feeling as those of
janitresses and kept women.... The fact
that there are men who could become
enamoured of this slut is indeed a proof
of the abasement of the men of this
generation."
Other
writers of the period, however, were
more favorable in their assessments of
Sand. The later novelist Flaubert, who
was by no means an indulgent or
forbearing critic, held unabashed
admiration for her, as did Marcel
Proust. Honoré de Balzac, another french
novelist who knew Sand personally, once
said that if someone thought George Sand
wrote badly, it was because their own
standards of criticism were inadequate.
He also noted that her treatment of
imagery in her works showed that her
writing had an exceptional subtlety,
having the ability to 'virtually put the
image in the word'.
Portrait of George Sand by Auguste
Charpentier (1838)
Relationships
Sand conducted affairs of varying
duration with Jules Sandeau
(1831), Prosper Mérimée,
Alfred de Musset (summer 1833 –
March 1835), Louis-Chrystosome
Michel, Pierre-François Bocage,
Félicien Mallefille and
Frédéric Chopin (1837–47).
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Jules Sandeau
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Leonard Sylvain Julien (Jules) Sandeau
(February 19, 1811 – April 24, 1883)
was a French novelist.
He was
born at Aubusson (Creuse), and was sent
to Paris to study law, but spent much of
his time in unruly behaviour with other
students. He met George Sand, then
Madame Dudevant, at Le Coudray in the
house of a friend, and when she came to
Paris in 1831 they had a relationship.
The intimacy did not last long, but it
produced Rose et Blanche (1831), a novel
written together under the pseudonym J.
Sand, from which George Sand took her
famous pseudonym.
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Prosper Mérimée
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In 1841, Prosper Mérimée and his
friend George Sand made a major
contribution to the history of medieval
art by discovering the luminous
tapestries of The Lady and the Unicorn
during a stay at the Château de Boussac
in the Limousin district of central
France, which entered immediately into
history thanks to the writings of George
Sand.
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Alfred de Musset
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Alfred de Musset
The tale of his celebrated love affair
with George Sand, which lasted from 1833
to 1835, is told from his point of view
in his autobiographical novel, La
Confession d'un Enfant du Siècle (The
Confession of a Child of the Age, made
into a film, Children of the Century),
and from her point of view in her Elle
et lui. Musset's Nuits
(1835–1837, Nights) trace his emotional
upheaval of his love for George Sand,
from early despair to final resignation.
He is also believed to be the author of
Gamiani, or Two Nights of Excess (1833),
a lesbian erotic novel, also believed to
be modeled on George Sand.
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Frédéric Chopin
Chopin, by Delacroix
In 1836, at a party hosted by Countess
Marie d'Agoult, mistress of friend and
fellow composer Franz Liszt, Chopin met
French author and feminist Amandine
Aurore Lucille Dupin, the Baroness
Dudevant, better known by her pseudonym,
George Sand. Sand's earlier romantic
involvements had included Jules Sandeau
(their literary collaboration had
spawned the pseudonym George Sand),
Prosper Mérimée, Alfred de Musset,
Louis-Chrystosome Michel, the writer
Charles Didier, Pierre-François Bocage
and Félicien Mallefille.
Chopin
initially felt an aversion to Sand. He
declared to Ferdinand Hiller: "What a
repulsive woman Sand is! But is she
really a woman? I am inclined to doubt
it." Sand, however, in a candid
thirty-two page letter to Count Wojciech
Grzymała, a friend to both her and
Chopin, admitted strong feelings for the
composer. In her letter she debated
whether to abandon a current affair in
order to begin a relationship with
Chopin, and attempted to gauge the
currency of his previous relationship
with Maria Wodzińska, which she did not
intend to interfere with should it still
exist. By the summer of 1838, Chopin's
and Sand's involvement was an open
secret.
A
notable episode in their time together
was a turbulent and miserable winter on
Majorca (8 November 1838 to 13 February
1839), where they, together with Sand's
two children, had gone in the hope of
improving Chopin's deteriorating health.
However, after discovering the couple
were not wed, the deeply religious
people of Majorca became inhospitable,
making accommodations difficult to find;
this compelled the foursome to take
lodgings in a scenic yet stark and cold
former Carthusian monastery in
Valldemossa.
Chopin
also had problems having his Pleyel
piano sent to him. It arrived from Paris
on 20 December but was held up by
customs. (Chopin wrote on 28 December:
"My piano has been stuck at customs for
8 days... They demand such a huge sum of
money to release it that I can't believe
it.") In the meantime Chopin had a
rickety rented piano on which he
practiced and may have composed some
pieces.
On 3
December, he complained about his bad
health and the incompetence of the
doctors in Majorca: "I have been sick as
a dog during these past two weeks. Three
doctors have visited me. The first said
I was going to die; the second said I
was breathing my last; and the third
said I was already dead."
Chopin, by Delacroix, 1838. Part of
joint portrait with George Sand. (Musée
du Louvre, Paris.)
On 4 January 1839, George Sand agreed to
pay 300 francs (half the demanded
amount) to have the Pleyel piano
released from customs. It was finally
delivered on 5 January. From then on
Chopin was able to use the long-awaited
instrument for almost five weeks, time
enough to complete some works: some
Preludes, Op. 28; a revision of the
Ballade No. 2, Op. 38; two Polonaises,
Op. 40; the Scherzo No. 3, Op. 39; the
Mazurka in E minor from Op. 41; and he
probably revisited his Sonata No. 2, Op.
35. The winter in Majorca is still
considered one of the most productive
periods in Chopin's life.
During
that winter, the bad weather had such a
serious effect on Chopin's health and
chronic lung disease that, in order to
save his life, the entire party were
compelled to leave the island. The
beloved French piano became an obstacle
to a hasty escape. Nevertheless, George
Sand managed to sell it to a French
couple (the Canuts), whose heirs are the
custodians of Chopin's legacy on Majorca
and of the Chopin cell-room museum in
Valldemossa.
The
party of four went first to Barcelona,
then to Marseille, where they stayed for
a few months to recover. In May 1839,
they headed to Sand's estate at Nohant
for the summer. In autumn they returned
to Paris, where initially they lived
apart; Chopin soon left his apartment at
5 rue Tronchet to move into Sand's house
at 16 rue Pigalle. The four lived
together at this address from October
1839 to November 1842, while spending
most summers until 1846 at Nohant. In
1842, they moved to 80 rue Taitbout in
the Square d'Orléans, living in adjacent
buildings.
It was
around this time that we have evidence
of Chopin's playing an instrument other
than the piano. At the funeral of the
tenor Adolphe Nourrit, who had jumped to
his death in Naples but whose body was
returned to Paris for burial, Chopin
played an organ transcription of Franz
Schubert's lied Die Gestirne.
During
the summers at Nohant, particularly in
the years 1839-43, Chopin found quiet
but productive days during which he
composed many works. They included his
great Polonaise in A flat major, Op. 53,
the "Heroic", one of his most famous
pieces. It is to Sand that we owe the
most compelling description of Chopin's
creative processes—of the rise of his
inspirations and of their painstaking
working-out, sometimes amid real
torments, amid weeping and complaints,
with hundreds of changes in the initial
concept, only to return to the initial
idea.[42] She describes an evening with
their friend Delacroix in attendance:
Chopin
is at the piano, quite oblivious of the
fact that anyone is listening. He
embarks on a sort of casual
improvisation, then stops. 'Go on, go
on,' exclaims Delacroix, 'That's not the
end!' 'It's not even a beginning.
Nothing will come ... nothing but
reflections, shadows, shapes that won't
stay fixed. I'm trying to find the right
colour, but I can't even get the form
...' 'You won't find the one without the
other,' says Delacroix, 'and both will
come together.' 'What if I find nothing
but moonlight?' 'Then you will have
found the reflection of a reflection.'
The idea seems to please the divine
artist. He begins again, without seeming
to, so uncertain is the shape. Gradually
quiet colours begin to show,
corresponding to the suave modulations
sounding in our ears. Suddenly the note
of blue sings out, and the night is all
around us, azure and transparent. Light
clouds take on fantastic shapes and fill
the sky. They gather about the moon
which casts upon them great opalescent
discs, and wakes the sleeping colours.
We dream of a summer night, and sit
there waiting for the song of the
nightingale ...
As the composer's illness progressed,
Sand gradually became less of a lover
and more of a nurse to Chopin, whom she
called her "third child." But the
nursing began to pall on her. In the
years to come she would keep up her
friendship with Chopin, but she often
gave vent to affectionate impatience, at
least in letters to third parties, in
which she referred to Chopin as a
"child," a "little angel," a "sufferer"
and a "beloved little corpse."
In 1845, as Chopin's health continued to
deteriorate, a serious problem emerged
in his relations with Sand. Those
relations were further soured in 1846 by
problems involving her daughter Solange
and the young sculptor Auguste
Clésinger. In 1847 Sand published her
novel Lucrezia Floriani, whose main
characters — a rich actress and a prince
in weak health — could be interpreted as
Sand and Chopin; the story was
uncomplimentary to Chopin, who could not
have missed the allusions as he helped
Sand correct the printer's galleys. In
1847 he did not visit Nohant. Mutual
friends attempted to reconcile them, but
the composer was unyielding.
One of
these friends was mezzo-soprano Pauline
Viardot. Sand had based her 1843 novel
Consuelo on Viardot, and the three had
spent many hours at Nohant. An
outstanding opera singer, Viardot was
also an excellent pianist who had
initially wanted the piano to be her
career and had taken lessons with Liszt
and Anton Reicha. Her friendship with
Chopin was based on mutual artistic
esteem and similarity of temperament.
The two had often played together; he
had advised her on piano technique and
had assisted her in writing a series of
songs based on the melodies of his
mazurkas. He in turn had gained from
Viardot some first-hand knowledge of
Spanish music.
The
year 1847 brought to an end, without any
dramatics or formalities, the relations
between Sand and Chopin that had lasted
ten years, since 1837.
Count
Wojciech Grzymała, who had followed
Chopin's romance with George Sand from
the first day to the last, would later
opine: "If he had not had the misfortune
of meeting G.S. [George Sand], who
poisoned his whole being, he would have
lived to be Cherubini's age." Chopin
died at thirty-nine; his friend
Cherubini had died at Paris in 1842 at
age eighty-one. The two composers repose
four meters apart at Père Lachaise
Cemetery.
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Later
in life, she corresponded with Gustave
Flaubert. Despite their obvious
differences in temperament and aesthetic
preference, they eventually became close
friends.
She was
engaged in an intimate friendship with
actress Marie Dorval, which led to
widespread but unconfirmed rumors of a
lesbian affair. Letters written by Sand
to Dorval mentioned things like "wanting
you either in your dressing room or in
your bed."
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Gustave
Flaubert
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Marie Dorval
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In
January, 1833, female writer George Sand
met Marie Dorval after the former
wrote the actress a letter of
appreciation following one of her
performances. The two women became
involved in an intimate friendship, and
were rumored to have become lesbian
lovers. This has since been debated, and
has never been verified. Theater critic
Gustave Planche reportedly warned Sand
to stay away from Dorval. Likewise,
Count Alfred de Vigny, Dorval's lover,
warned the actress to stay away from
Sand, whom he referred to as "that
damned lesbian". Popular writers from
that time, such as Théophile Gautier and
Honoré de Balzac, capitalized on the
rumors.
Whatever the truth in their
relationship, Sand and Dorval
would remain close friends for the
remainder of Dorval's lifetime. In 1834,
Dorval starred in Vigny's play
Chatterton, and in 1840 she played the
lead in a play written by Sand, entitled Cosima, and the two women collaborated
on the script. However, the play was not
well received, and was cancelled after
only seven showings.
She had
many successes that did follow,
especially in popular productions at the
Odéon Theatre. Her last two major
appearances were in François Ponsard's
Lucrèce (1843) and in Adolphe d'Ennery's
Marie-Jeanne, ou la femme du peuple
(Marie-Jeanne, Or the Woman of the
People, 1845).
Her
career began going downhill with a shift
in fashion and the public's desire for
younger actresses, and she began
traveling with a troupe of actors doing
small shows around the countryside. By
the age of 51, her health was failing
due to her long life of travel and
shows, and she sank into depression
following the death of one of her
grandchildren. Sand assumed the
financial support for Dorval's surviving
grandchildren following Marie's death in
1849.
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In
Majorca one can still visit the (then
abandoned) Carthusian monastery of
Valldemossa, where she spent the winter
of 1838–39 with Chopin and her children.
This trip to Majorca was described by
her in Un Hiver à Majorque (A Winter in
Majorca), published in 1855. Chopin was
already ill with incipient tuberculosis
at the beginning of their relationship,
and spending a winter in Majorca - where
Sand and Chopin did not realize that
winter was a time of rain and cold, and
where they could not get proper lodgings
- exacerbated his symptoms.
They
split two years before his death, for a
culmination of reasons. Sand's
insecurities at forty probably
contributed to her boredom and sexual
dissatisfaction with Chopin. In Lucrezia
Floriani, a novel, Sand used Chopin as a
model for a sickly Eastern European
prince named Karol. He's cared for by a
middle-aged actress past her prime,
Lucrezia, who suffers a great deal by
caring for Karol. Though Sand claimed
not to have made a cartoon out of
Chopin, the book's publication and
widespread readership may have
exacerbated their apathy to each other.
However, the tipping point in their
relationship involved her daughter
Solange. Chopin continued to be cordial
to Solange after she and her husband,
Auguste Clesinger, had a vicious falling
out with Sand over money. Sand took
Chopin's support of Solange as outright
treachery, and confirmation that Chopin
had always "loved" Solange. Sand's son
Maurice also disliked Chopin. Maurice
wanted to establish himself as the 'man
of the estate,' and did not wish to have
Chopin as a rival for that role. Chopin
was never asked back to Nohant. In 1848,
he returned to Paris from a tour of the
UK and died at the Place Vendôme. Chopin
was penniless at that point; his friends
had to pay for his stay there, as well
as his funeral at the Madeleine. The
funeral was attended by over 3,000
people, including Delacroix, Liszt,
Victor Hugo and other famous people.
George Sand, however, was notable by her
absence.
Writing career
A liaison with the writer Jules Sandeau
heralded her literary debut. They
published a few stories in
collaboration, signing them "Jules
Sand." Her first published novel, Rose
et Blanche (1831), was written in
collaboration with Sandeau. She
subsequently adopted, for her first
independent novel, Indiana (1832), the
pen name that made her famous – George
Sand.
Drawing
from her childhood experiences of the
countryside, she wrote the rural novels
La Mare au Diable (1846), François le
Champi (1847–1848), La Petite Fadette
(1849), and Les Beaux Messieurs Bois-Doré
(1857). A Winter in Majorca described
the period that she and Chopin spent on
that island in 1838-9.
Her
other novels include Indiana (1832),
Lélia (1833), Mauprat (1837), Le
Compagnon du Tour de France (1840),
Consuelo (1842–1843), and Le Meunier
d'Angibault (1845).
Further
theatre pieces and autobiographical
pieces include Histoire de ma vie
(1855), Elle et Lui (1859) (about her
affair with Musset), Journal Intime
(posthumously published in 1926), and
Correspondence. Sand often performed her
theatrical works in her small private
theatre at the Nohant estate.
In
addition, Sand authored literary
criticism and political texts. She wrote
many essays and published works
establishing her socialist position.
Because of her early life, she sided
with the poor and working class. When
the 1848 Revolution began, women had no
rights and Sand believed these were
necessary for progress. Around this time
Sand started her own newspaper which was
published in a workers' co-operative.
This allowed her to publish more
political essays. She wrote "I cannot
believe in any republic that starts a
revolution by killing its own
proletariat."
Her
most widely used quote is "There is only
one happiness in life, to love and be
loved."
She was
known well in far reaches of the world,
and her social practices, her writings
and her beliefs prompted much
commentary, often by other luminaries in
the world of arts and letters. A few
excerpts demonstrate much of what was
often said about George Sand:
"She
was a thinking bosom and one who
overpowered her young lovers, all Sybil
— a Romantic."
V.S. Pritchett (writer)
"What a brave man she was, and what a
good woman."
Ivan Turgenev (novelist)
"The most womanly woman."
Alfred de Musset (poet)
George Sand. Photo by Nadar,
1864.
Death
George Sand died at Nohant, near
Châteauroux, in France's Indre
département on 8 June 1876, at the age
of 71 and was buried in the grounds of
her home there. In 2004, controversial
plans were suggested to move her remains
to the Panthéon in Paris.
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