I was actually looking for something about George Sand and found this painting:




Here is a description:

Franz Liszt Improvising at the Piano (1840)

Franz Liszt (1811-1886), Hungarian composer and pianist, plays for Alexander Dumas (the Elder), Aurore Dupin (George Sand), and the Countess Marie d'Agoult (all seated), Hector Berlioz, Niccolò Paganini, and Giacomo Rossini (standing). A bust of Beethoven by Anton Dietrich sits atop the piano and a portrait of Lord Byron hangs on the wall. Painting by Josef Danhauser, 1840.

Hard to tell exactly which one is Sand. And that bust of Beethoven is huge! Kind of scary, isn't it?

Not as scary as all the people running around Vienna dressed up as Mozart. Not to mention the ones whose clothes, skin, hair, everything are painted silver, or gold, and they stand on boxes pretending to be statues...

I would make a comment about dear old George, but I think my sig says it all.

I know. What did he see in her? Sure wasn't her looks! Have you seen her older photos? Time was no friend of hers!


And do they jump/shout out and scare innocent bystanders? I love that sort of thing.

Yeah, they do stuff like that - or whistle.

As for what Chopin saw in old Georgie...maybe he was just too polite to say no? On second thought... perhaps it was because she looks a bit like Franz?

Old Georgie is right. For some reason, her older photos remind me of Teddy Roosevelt.

And Freddy wasn't always so polite. Have you read his letters? In them he says some pretty snide (yet funny) things about people.

Yeah, we had this conversation a while back, in reference to his comment about Czerny ("a good man, but nothing more" - or something like that). But I imagine it's different when they're face-to-face.

Oh, I don't really like to think about that.


(you're right - I'm having deja vu.)

Hi all,



I think it must have been her motherly attentions, and her strong sense of family, which anchored Chopin the expat (even if he did experience "family problems"). She must have had a certain unselfish and totally giving way with Chopin that made him feel quite loved and cared for... she knew how to make a man love her, as she had so much practice before Chopin! She catered to his needs, and provided a "fortress of solitude" for him to compose his greatest works - her summer residence at Nohant.

Chopin was, of course, a snob. Sand was not Polish, and he may not have read her books, but she did spring from royalty, and had married a Baron. And she was famous. All this certainly helped. I have no doubt that he eventually found her beautiful. We look at her portrait and wonder why, but Chopin knew her, and fell under her spell, which made her beautiful in his eyes. My opinion only.

By the way, George is the one swooning in the brown leather armchair, behind Liszt.

That's a woman?

Are you "inclined to doubt it?" Hahaha!

reclined

I agree, James. We all know how Chopin felt about Sand upon their initial meeting. Pretty much everything about her went against his sense of refinement. Therefore, it must have been her mind and station in life that turned him around. I too can be attracted to a man not for his looks, but for his mind.

And Julius - yes- this heat is stifling! I pushed myself hard on my bike ride to Starbucks yesterday, but then nearly collapsed from heat stroke on the way home. More of the same today too. I'm just going to stay on my piano all day.