INTRODUCTION
The vast range of objects in the possession of the Fryderyk Chopin Museum in Warsaw encompasses the last piano belonging to Fryderyk Chopin, the composer’s musical manuscripts, letters written by him and addressed to him, nineteenth-century and contemporary portraits (paintings, drawings, sculptures, concert posters, etc.), works of art featuring motifs associated with Chopin, archival materials, and other documents related to his artistic work. The Museum functions under the aegis of The Fryderyk Chopin Institute, set up in 2001 by an act of parliament to safeguard and disseminate the Chopin heritage. In addition to running the Chopin Museum, the Institute organises concerts and piano competitions (including respectively, the International Music Festival ‘Chopin and his Europe’ and the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition), and it conducts scholarly, educational and publishing work of diverse kinds. Moreover, it also oversees the production of recordings and maintains a specialist library, as well as collections of phonographic and photographic material. The Chopin Museum collection comprises more than 6,300 inventoried items. Despite often unfavourable historical circumstances, as a result of which a sizeable proportion of the Chopin heritage has tragically been lost, the collection includes key items which enable us to discover historical aspects of the composer’s life and work and to understand how Chopin and his music function in the world today.
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FRYDERYK CHOPIN MUSEUM
Fryderyk Chopin’s Parisian drawing room, on permanent display at the Chopin Museum. It includes Chopin’s last piano, made by the firm of Ignace Pleyel & Compie. (see pp. 24–25).
Fryderyk Chopin’s Birthplace and Park in Żelazowa Wola – a branch of the Fryderyk Chopin Museum. The building where Chopin was born on 1 March 1810 appears in the background (renovated in 1931, porch added in 1933).
The earliest collection was systematically assembled by Jane W. Stirling, a pupil of Chopin, and by the composer’s family. From 1899, it was developed further by the Warsaw Music Society, and from 1934 responsibility for the collection passed to the pre-war Fryderyk Chopin Institute, which in 1953 was renamed the Fryderyk Chopin Society. Since 2005 the collection has been in the care of the current Fryderyk Chopin Institute. In 1999, part of the collection was inscribed in UNESCO’s ‘Memory of the World’ list, together with Chopin-related items held by the National Library in Warsaw. The objects of historical, artistic and social value chosen for discussion in this book are complemented by recordings of Chopin’s music made on period instruments. Although the objects relate the composer’s biography in an inevitably fragmentary form, this selection will shed light on his life and work. However, readers will need to probe further to gain the clearest possible sense of who Chopin was and how both he and his music came to exert such a major influence during his lifetime and since his death in 1849.
INTRODUCTION
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INTRODUCTION
The vast range of objects in the possession of the Fryderyk Chopin Museum in Warsaw encompasses the last piano belonging to Fryderyk Chopin, the composer’s musical manuscripts, letters written by him and addressed to him, nineteenth-century and contemporary portraits (paintings, drawings, sculptures, concert posters, etc.), works of art featuring motifs associated with Chopin, archival materials, and other documents related to his artistic work. The Museum functions under the aegis of The Fryderyk Chopin Institute, set up in 2001 by an act of parliament to safeguard and disseminate the Chopin heritage. In addition to running the Chopin Museum, the Institute organises concerts and piano competitions (including respectively, the International Music Festival ‘Chopin and his Europe’ and the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition), and it conducts scholarly, educational and publishing work of diverse kinds. Moreover, it also oversees the production of recordings and maintains a specialist library, as well as collections of phonographic and photographic material. The Chopin Museum collection comprises more than 6,300 inventoried items. Despite often unfavourable historical circumstances, as a result of which a sizeable proportion of the Chopin heritage has tragically been lost, the collection includes key items which enable us to discover historical aspects of the composer’s life and work and to understand how Chopin and his music function in the world today.
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FRYDERYK CHOPIN MUSEUM
Fryderyk Chopin’s Parisian drawing room, on permanent display at the Chopin Museum. It includes Chopin’s last piano, made by the firm of Ignace Pleyel & Compie. (see pp. 24–25).
Fryderyk Chopin’s Birthplace and Park in Żelazowa Wola – a branch of the Fryderyk Chopin Museum. The building where Chopin was born on 1 March 1810 appears in the background (renovated in 1931, porch added in 1933).
The earliest collection was systematically assembled by Jane W. Stirling, a pupil of Chopin, and by the composer’s family. From 1899, it was developed further by the Warsaw Music Society, and from 1934 responsibility for the collection passed to the pre-war Fryderyk Chopin Institute, which in 1953 was renamed the Fryderyk Chopin Society. Since 2005 the collection has been in the care of the current Fryderyk Chopin Institute. In 1999, part of the collection was inscribed in UNESCO’s ‘Memory of the World’ list, together with Chopin-related items held by the National Library in Warsaw. The objects of historical, artistic and social value chosen for discussion in this book are complemented by recordings of Chopin’s music made on period instruments. Although the objects relate the composer’s biography in an inevitably fragmentary form, this selection will shed light on his life and work. However, readers will need to probe further to gain the clearest possible sense of who Chopin was and how both he and his music came to exert such a major influence during his lifetime and since his death in 1849.
INTRODUCTION
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Fryderyk Chopin Żelazowa Wola 1810–1849 Paris
Ballade in G minor, Op. 23 for piano
(composed 1831?, 1835–36) Autograph Stichvorlage (?) of part of the work, n.d. MC/488
Not only do Chopin’s four ballades, composed between 1835 and 1843, form the core of nineteenth-century piano repertoire, but they also established one of the most characteristic musical genres of the Romantic era: the instrumental ballade. Although none of Chopin’s ballades is known to follow a specific programme, many attempts have been made to associate these works with poetic ballads popular in the literature of the time. Particular links have been suggested with the writings of Adam Mickiewicz, who in 1822 defined the ballad as follows: ‘The ballad is a tale spun from incidents in everyday (that is, real) life or from chivalrous histories, animated by strangeness from the Romantic world, sung in a melancholy tone, in a serious style, simple and natural in expression.’ The ‘simple and natural’ here refers to the ballad’s reliance on folk traditions (in this passage, Irish and Scottish ballads specifically) and its projection of ‘authentic’ values, at least as understood within the idealistic context of romanticism. Some biographers have proposed that Chopin began to compose this, his first ballade, as early as 1831, but it more likely dates from 1835–36. It marks a radical departure from the then fashionable stile brillante, which was characterised by extremes of virtuosity and by a tendency to alternate between what Jim Samson once called ‘poetry’ and ‘display’. This manuscript, of uncertain status, constitutes a fair copy of the opening bars of the Ballade, and it was prepared at a late stage in composing the work. The fact that it was never completed may be because Chopin either mislaid or rejected it. (Another manuscript of the entire work currently held in a private collection in the USA was used as the basis for the French first edition of the Ballade.) When listening to Chopin’s ballades, one cannot help but observe their narrative and depictive character; nevertheless, according to the Romantic aesthetic, in which music was at the pinnacle of the arts, they inhabit a realm of feeling and emotion which could never be captured by words alone.
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BALLADE IN G MINOR
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Fryderyk Chopin Żelazowa Wola 1810–1849 Paris
Ballade in G minor, Op. 23 for piano
(composed 1831?, 1835–36) Autograph Stichvorlage (?) of part of the work, n.d. MC/488
Not only do Chopin’s four ballades, composed between 1835 and 1843, form the core of nineteenth-century piano repertoire, but they also established one of the most characteristic musical genres of the Romantic era: the instrumental ballade. Although none of Chopin’s ballades is known to follow a specific programme, many attempts have been made to associate these works with poetic ballads popular in the literature of the time. Particular links have been suggested with the writings of Adam Mickiewicz, who in 1822 defined the ballad as follows: ‘The ballad is a tale spun from incidents in everyday (that is, real) life or from chivalrous histories, animated by strangeness from the Romantic world, sung in a melancholy tone, in a serious style, simple and natural in expression.’ The ‘simple and natural’ here refers to the ballad’s reliance on folk traditions (in this passage, Irish and Scottish ballads specifically) and its projection of ‘authentic’ values, at least as understood within the idealistic context of romanticism. Some biographers have proposed that Chopin began to compose this, his first ballade, as early as 1831, but it more likely dates from 1835–36. It marks a radical departure from the then fashionable stile brillante, which was characterised by extremes of virtuosity and by a tendency to alternate between what Jim Samson once called ‘poetry’ and ‘display’. This manuscript, of uncertain status, constitutes a fair copy of the opening bars of the Ballade, and it was prepared at a late stage in composing the work. The fact that it was never completed may be because Chopin either mislaid or rejected it. (Another manuscript of the entire work currently held in a private collection in the USA was used as the basis for the French first edition of the Ballade.) When listening to Chopin’s ballades, one cannot help but observe their narrative and depictive character; nevertheless, according to the Romantic aesthetic, in which music was at the pinnacle of the arts, they inhabit a realm of feeling and emotion which could never be captured by words alone.
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BALLADE IN G MINOR
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Fryderyk Chopin
Etude in C sharp minor, Op. 10 No. 4 for piano (opus as a whole composed 1829–32) Autograph manuscript, dated Paris, 6 August 1832 M/3249
The etude is a genre intended for didactic purposes, and one can imagine budding pianists developing their technique with such exercises in innumerable nineteenthcentury apartments furnished with grand or upright pianos, which were increasingly popular at the time. As historians have pointed out, the ability to play the piano was considered an essential part of the dowry of a young lady from a good home. The annoyance of hearing pianistic ‘maidens’ practising in the neighbourhood was raised in correspondence by many, including Chopin, who was acutely sensitive to the noises of the Parisian metropolis. The popularity of the didactic repertoire went hand in hand with the dissemination of methods for acquiring greater technical proficiency in the fingers, with the use of devices that often resembled instruments of torture. Chopin, who shunned methods at odds with the natural properties of the hand, wrist and arm, preferred to take advantage of the innate attributes of each individual finger (including relative strength) and was opposed to forcing the hand, which could lead to irreversible injuries preventing further playing. Chopin’s etudes offer multi-dimensional training in the most important technical and expressive aspects of the art of piano. This is because the composer raised the genre to the rank of autonomous, fully-fledged concert pieces, whilst not forgetting its original didactic function. In each of his etudes, he focused on a different pianistic problem, whether arpeggios, thirds, repeated notes or other technical challenges. In the Etude in G flat major, Op. 10 No. 5, for example, the right hand is confined to the black keys, whilst in the Etude in C sharp minor, Op. 25 No. 7, the left hand intones a deeply lyrical melody reminiscent of the cello. In contrast, the Etude in B minor, Op. 25 No. 10, is given over to octaves in both hands. Ludwig Rellstab unjustly wrote in 1834: ‘Those who have distorted fingers may put them right by practising these studies [i.e. Op. 10]’. The etudes are avidly performed by today’s pianists, and at the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and in many other contexts they test the degree to which individual musicians have mastered the considerable technical and artistic challenges that they pose. First page
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ETUDE IN C SHARP MINOR
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Fryderyk Chopin
Etude in C sharp minor, Op. 10 No. 4 for piano (opus as a whole composed 1829–32) Autograph manuscript, dated Paris, 6 August 1832 M/3249
The etude is a genre intended for didactic purposes, and one can imagine budding pianists developing their technique with such exercises in innumerable nineteenthcentury apartments furnished with grand or upright pianos, which were increasingly popular at the time. As historians have pointed out, the ability to play the piano was considered an essential part of the dowry of a young lady from a good home. The annoyance of hearing pianistic ‘maidens’ practising in the neighbourhood was raised in correspondence by many, including Chopin, who was acutely sensitive to the noises of the Parisian metropolis. The popularity of the didactic repertoire went hand in hand with the dissemination of methods for acquiring greater technical proficiency in the fingers, with the use of devices that often resembled instruments of torture. Chopin, who shunned methods at odds with the natural properties of the hand, wrist and arm, preferred to take advantage of the innate attributes of each individual finger (including relative strength) and was opposed to forcing the hand, which could lead to irreversible injuries preventing further playing. Chopin’s etudes offer multi-dimensional training in the most important technical and expressive aspects of the art of piano. This is because the composer raised the genre to the rank of autonomous, fully-fledged concert pieces, whilst not forgetting its original didactic function. In each of his etudes, he focused on a different pianistic problem, whether arpeggios, thirds, repeated notes or other technical challenges. In the Etude in G flat major, Op. 10 No. 5, for example, the right hand is confined to the black keys, whilst in the Etude in C sharp minor, Op. 25 No. 7, the left hand intones a deeply lyrical melody reminiscent of the cello. In contrast, the Etude in B minor, Op. 25 No. 10, is given over to octaves in both hands. Ludwig Rellstab unjustly wrote in 1834: ‘Those who have distorted fingers may put them right by practising these studies [i.e. Op. 10]’. The etudes are avidly performed by today’s pianists, and at the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and in many other contexts they test the degree to which individual musicians have mastered the considerable technical and artistic challenges that they pose. First page
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ETUDE IN C SHARP MINOR
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Fryderyk Chopin
Mazurka in F minor [Op. 68 No. 4] for piano Autograph sketch of the whole work, 1845–46? M/235
During the nineteenth century, ‘last works’ exuded a special aura, although idealised images of a dying artist (e.g. Józef Męcina-Krzesz’s posthumous depiction, Chopin’s Last Chords) were often far removed from reality. Unfinished compositions in particular acquired a symbolic place in nineteenth-century artistic biographies, especially when work was halted because of illness or death. Such was the presumed status for many years of the Mazurka in F minor, arising from the widespread conviction that it was written in the penultimate or very last year of Chopin’s life. Yet this work, published in 1855 in the Œuvres posthumes volume assembled by Julian Fontana (and given the designation Op. 68 No. 4 in the Berlin edition of A. M. Schlesinger), is not the composer’s last, albeit unfinished composition. Jeffrey Kallberg has shown that it was written in 1845–46 and that it was probably an abandoned sketch for a mazurka intended as the second of three pieces to be published as Op. 63. A few years after Chopin’s death, on the basis of an exceptionally convoluted compositional sketch, Julian Fontana and Auguste Franchomme published an attempted reconstruction, or rather completion, of the work. Close scrutiny of the manuscript during the second half of the twentieth century resulted in further reconstructions and critical interpretations. Although Chopin wrote mazurkas throughout his life, for him the genre involved more than simply referencing a tradition, for all that it was rooted in Polish folk music. Instead, he went far beyond mere quotation of generic ‘fingerprints’ by evoking the essence of Polishness. Not only did Chopin convey the character of folk models in these works, but he found utterly unique ways of expressing the idioms of the three mazurka dances: mazur, kujawiak and oberek (in Chopin’s mazurkas, we encounter all three). Interest in traditional folk music played a crucial role in the construction of the ‘imagined communities’ of nineteenth-century nation-states. Yet Chopin’s mazurkas – and his polonaises too – not only provided arguments in favour of distinctive national identity: they also became some of the most important works in the Romantic piano literature.
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MAZURKA IN F MINOR
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Fryderyk Chopin
Mazurka in F minor [Op. 68 No. 4] for piano Autograph sketch of the whole work, 1845–46? M/235
During the nineteenth century, ‘last works’ exuded a special aura, although idealised images of a dying artist (e.g. Józef Męcina-Krzesz’s posthumous depiction, Chopin’s Last Chords) were often far removed from reality. Unfinished compositions in particular acquired a symbolic place in nineteenth-century artistic biographies, especially when work was halted because of illness or death. Such was the presumed status for many years of the Mazurka in F minor, arising from the widespread conviction that it was written in the penultimate or very last year of Chopin’s life. Yet this work, published in 1855 in the Œuvres posthumes volume assembled by Julian Fontana (and given the designation Op. 68 No. 4 in the Berlin edition of A. M. Schlesinger), is not the composer’s last, albeit unfinished composition. Jeffrey Kallberg has shown that it was written in 1845–46 and that it was probably an abandoned sketch for a mazurka intended as the second of three pieces to be published as Op. 63. A few years after Chopin’s death, on the basis of an exceptionally convoluted compositional sketch, Julian Fontana and Auguste Franchomme published an attempted reconstruction, or rather completion, of the work. Close scrutiny of the manuscript during the second half of the twentieth century resulted in further reconstructions and critical interpretations. Although Chopin wrote mazurkas throughout his life, for him the genre involved more than simply referencing a tradition, for all that it was rooted in Polish folk music. Instead, he went far beyond mere quotation of generic ‘fingerprints’ by evoking the essence of Polishness. Not only did Chopin convey the character of folk models in these works, but he found utterly unique ways of expressing the idioms of the three mazurka dances: mazur, kujawiak and oberek (in Chopin’s mazurkas, we encounter all three). Interest in traditional folk music played a crucial role in the construction of the ‘imagined communities’ of nineteenth-century nation-states. Yet Chopin’s mazurkas – and his polonaises too – not only provided arguments in favour of distinctive national identity: they also became some of the most important works in the Romantic piano literature.
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MAZURKA IN F MINOR
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Franciszek Habdas Żywiec 1906–1977 Warsaw
Medallion with a portrait of Fryderyk Chopin, 1964 Patinated bronze cast M/1083
Most portraits of Fryderyk Chopin draw on a dozen or so likenesses produced during the nineteenth century, some of them during the composer’s lifetime. Few artists manage to propose a different view of Chopin’s characteristic features. One of the most interesting was created by Franciszek Habdas. Artists of the first avant-garde, especially expressionists, sought a new language through which to represent humanity. Traditions from non-European cultures and native folk output began to penetrate the work of professional artists, and simple, sparing lines and ‘quasi-primitive’ gestures enabled viewers to take a fresh look at familiar motifs, to discover the layered authenticity veiled by the refinements of civilisation. Habdas captures Chopin’s features by means of a few synthesising lines, while the face is treated almost like a contemporary graphic sign. The irregular edges and surface of the medallion lend the work an austere, quasiarchaic character. On the reverse, the geometrical treble clef and the word ‘CHOPIN’ written out on a stave, with the letter ‘o’ resembling a notehead, transport us, in turn, into a different realm: that of modern functional graphic art, with its characteristic treatments of the composer’s likeness and name. At the same time, Habdas’s medallion adheres to the long and rich tradition of outstanding people being commemorated in numismatic form.
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MEDALLION WITH A PORTRAIT OF FRYDERYK CHOPIN
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Franciszek Habdas Żywiec 1906–1977 Warsaw
Medallion with a portrait of Fryderyk Chopin, 1964 Patinated bronze cast M/1083
Most portraits of Fryderyk Chopin draw on a dozen or so likenesses produced during the nineteenth century, some of them during the composer’s lifetime. Few artists manage to propose a different view of Chopin’s characteristic features. One of the most interesting was created by Franciszek Habdas. Artists of the first avant-garde, especially expressionists, sought a new language through which to represent humanity. Traditions from non-European cultures and native folk output began to penetrate the work of professional artists, and simple, sparing lines and ‘quasi-primitive’ gestures enabled viewers to take a fresh look at familiar motifs, to discover the layered authenticity veiled by the refinements of civilisation. Habdas captures Chopin’s features by means of a few synthesising lines, while the face is treated almost like a contemporary graphic sign. The irregular edges and surface of the medallion lend the work an austere, quasiarchaic character. On the reverse, the geometrical treble clef and the word ‘CHOPIN’ written out on a stave, with the letter ‘o’ resembling a notehead, transport us, in turn, into a different realm: that of modern functional graphic art, with its characteristic treatments of the composer’s likeness and name. At the same time, Habdas’s medallion adheres to the long and rich tradition of outstanding people being commemorated in numismatic form.
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MEDALLION WITH A PORTRAIT OF FRYDERYK CHOPIN
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Teofil Kwiatkowski Pułtusk 1809–1891 Avallon (France)
Fryderyk Chopin in House Clothes, 1849 or later Watercolour and pencil sketch on parchment M/71
Teofil Kwiatkowski produced a dozen or so works entitled Fryderyk Chopin in House Clothes depicting the composer in an unusually intimate, domestic setting. These works differ in details and technique; the earliest dates from 1843, while many others were produced after the composer’s death but bear the date 17 October 1849, like the work in question. Here Chopin’s dress suggests an informal, somewhat dreamlike context, departing from portrayals which are more realistic in character (e.g. seated at the piano) or traditional portraits affording the viewer direct contact with the subject. The composer is turned away from the viewer, in a relaxed pose, and his face, shown in profile, rests on his hand, a gesture that Polish viewers might associate with a portrait of another Romantic bard: Walenty Wańkowicz’s Adam Mickiewicz on Ayu-Dag. Whereas the poet, in characteristic attire from the 1820s, is at one with the elements, Chopin seeks inspiration within the isolation of his apartment. In this remarkable portrait, Kwiatkowski captures the intimate character of Chopin’s music and personality while projecting more transcendental values. After Chopin’s death, the same artist depicted him differently – in an allegorical tableau with the title Ball at the Hôtel Lambert (Chopin’s Polonaise). This painting indicates that as early as the 1850s Chopin was acquiring the status of a national artist, of the next bard, making manifest in his music the fundamental values of a nation fighting to regain its independence.
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FRYDERYK CHOPIN IN HOUSE CLOTHES
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Teofil Kwiatkowski Pułtusk 1809–1891 Avallon (France)
Fryderyk Chopin in House Clothes, 1849 or later Watercolour and pencil sketch on parchment M/71
Teofil Kwiatkowski produced a dozen or so works entitled Fryderyk Chopin in House Clothes depicting the composer in an unusually intimate, domestic setting. These works differ in details and technique; the earliest dates from 1843, while many others were produced after the composer’s death but bear the date 17 October 1849, like the work in question. Here Chopin’s dress suggests an informal, somewhat dreamlike context, departing from portrayals which are more realistic in character (e.g. seated at the piano) or traditional portraits affording the viewer direct contact with the subject. The composer is turned away from the viewer, in a relaxed pose, and his face, shown in profile, rests on his hand, a gesture that Polish viewers might associate with a portrait of another Romantic bard: Walenty Wańkowicz’s Adam Mickiewicz on Ayu-Dag. Whereas the poet, in characteristic attire from the 1820s, is at one with the elements, Chopin seeks inspiration within the isolation of his apartment. In this remarkable portrait, Kwiatkowski captures the intimate character of Chopin’s music and personality while projecting more transcendental values. After Chopin’s death, the same artist depicted him differently – in an allegorical tableau with the title Ball at the Hôtel Lambert (Chopin’s Polonaise). This painting indicates that as early as the 1850s Chopin was acquiring the status of a national artist, of the next bard, making manifest in his music the fundamental values of a nation fighting to regain its independence.
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FRYDERYK CHOPIN IN HOUSE CLOTHES
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George Sand Paris 1804–1876 Nohant
Chopin Climbing the Stairs to Mrs Marliani’s Four at a Time, between 1842 and June 1844? Quill drawing on paper M/3141
public circulation during his lifetime. Chopin had a flair for acting. On many occasions his peers described him as an actor parodying characteristic human types and even acting in short scenes. At the piano, albeit exclusively for small groups of trusted acquaintances, he would mimic the performance styles of other pianists and composers in an exaggerated way. He himself drew caricatures, and his sense of humour is manifest in many of his letters. Chopin was known to have an ironic attitude towards his own appearance and physical condition.
Chopin’s relationship with George Sand, one of the most famous French writers of the nineteenth century, lasted with varying intensity from 1838 (they first met in 1836) to 1847 (their paths crossed for the last time in 1848 – by accident). Although it is difficult to evaluate their liaison unambiguously, George Sand undeniably provided the composer not only with conditions in which he could work, but also with a circle of close friends. Chopin, running up the stairs to Mrs Marliani’s, is clearly late, as we learn from the tutting of the three people waiting: ‘Hurry up Chop! it’s half past six’, cries George Sand; Maurice Sand declares ‘Come on! We’re at the table!’; Solange Sand bemoans ‘What a little horror! He’s always making us wait!’. Chopin replies: ‘Oh no, oh no, oh no’. This caricature dates from 1842–44, when Chopin and George Sand lived off the same courtyard on the Square d’Orléans, albeit in separate apartments. Sand wrote that Chopin ‘has found on the square itself a little place with quite a large drawing-room, giving out onto the greenery, quiet, and not expensive, so he’ll only have to cross the courtyard to go and give his lessons and then come back to dine’ (George Sand to Marie de Rozières, 4 (?) August 1842). So the ‘Famille Piffoël’, as the writer called her family in her contacts with Franz Liszt and Marie d’Agoult, is waiting for Chopin, who is running up the stairs at 6 Square d’Orléans, where the Marlianis lived. In Sand’s Histoire de ma vie, we read: ‘the enterprising Marliani had arranged a family life for us all […] We would all eat together at Marliani’s, and share expenses’. Many artists in the age of bravura virtuosity, including the outstanding pianist-composer Franz Liszt, were portrayed in caricatures highlighting their most exceptional features. Chopin, however, was caricatured very rarely during his lifetime, and drawings of this sort were produced solely within his circle of close friends; no caricature of Chopin appeared in
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CHOPIN CLIMBING THE STAIRS TO MRS MARLIANI’S FOUR AT A TIME
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George Sand Paris 1804–1876 Nohant
Chopin Climbing the Stairs to Mrs Marliani’s Four at a Time, between 1842 and June 1844? Quill drawing on paper M/3141
public circulation during his lifetime. Chopin had a flair for acting. On many occasions his peers described him as an actor parodying characteristic human types and even acting in short scenes. At the piano, albeit exclusively for small groups of trusted acquaintances, he would mimic the performance styles of other pianists and composers in an exaggerated way. He himself drew caricatures, and his sense of humour is manifest in many of his letters. Chopin was known to have an ironic attitude towards his own appearance and physical condition.
Chopin’s relationship with George Sand, one of the most famous French writers of the nineteenth century, lasted with varying intensity from 1838 (they first met in 1836) to 1847 (their paths crossed for the last time in 1848 – by accident). Although it is difficult to evaluate their liaison unambiguously, George Sand undeniably provided the composer not only with conditions in which he could work, but also with a circle of close friends. Chopin, running up the stairs to Mrs Marliani’s, is clearly late, as we learn from the tutting of the three people waiting: ‘Hurry up Chop! it’s half past six’, cries George Sand; Maurice Sand declares ‘Come on! We’re at the table!’; Solange Sand bemoans ‘What a little horror! He’s always making us wait!’. Chopin replies: ‘Oh no, oh no, oh no’. This caricature dates from 1842–44, when Chopin and George Sand lived off the same courtyard on the Square d’Orléans, albeit in separate apartments. Sand wrote that Chopin ‘has found on the square itself a little place with quite a large drawing-room, giving out onto the greenery, quiet, and not expensive, so he’ll only have to cross the courtyard to go and give his lessons and then come back to dine’ (George Sand to Marie de Rozières, 4 (?) August 1842). So the ‘Famille Piffoël’, as the writer called her family in her contacts with Franz Liszt and Marie d’Agoult, is waiting for Chopin, who is running up the stairs at 6 Square d’Orléans, where the Marlianis lived. In Sand’s Histoire de ma vie, we read: ‘the enterprising Marliani had arranged a family life for us all […] We would all eat together at Marliani’s, and share expenses’. Many artists in the age of bravura virtuosity, including the outstanding pianist-composer Franz Liszt, were portrayed in caricatures highlighting their most exceptional features. Chopin, however, was caricatured very rarely during his lifetime, and drawings of this sort were produced solely within his circle of close friends; no caricature of Chopin appeared in
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CHOPIN CLIMBING THE STAIRS TO MRS MARLIANI’S FOUR AT A TIME
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Mieczysław Jurgielewicz Warsaw 1900–1983 Warsaw
Portrait of Fryderyk Chopin, 1955 Woodcut on paper M/985
Images of the composer in everyday situations are rare in the Chopin iconography. Here, he is seated sideways, in a relaxed pose, straddling the sill of an open window, his eyes half closed. This characteristic profile evokes other similar views of the composer, including the romantic pose captured by Teofil Kwiatkowski and Wojciech Weiss’s highly expressive Chopin. Yet neither of those works has the disengaged lightness combined with the intense focus of this woodcut by Mieczysław Jurgielewicz, a pupil of the outstanding woodcut artist Władysław Skoczylas. The roughness of the woodcut seems far removed from the airy, supple lines of the art of the first decades of the nineteenth century. Jurgielewicz’s woodcut, from 1955, seeks a different Chopin – not the ‘sylph of the piano’ that Astolphe de Custine described, or the ethereal and neurotic romantic that numerous biographers of the second half of the nineteenth century saw in him. Jurgielewicz’s Chopin is portrayed in his ordinary, everyday life. That does not mean that he is ordinary – but he is not accompanied by symbols elucidating his creative output. He is not allegorised. He is not embroiled in national myths.
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PORTRAIT OF FRYDERYK CHOPIN
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Mieczysław Jurgielewicz Warsaw 1900–1983 Warsaw
Portrait of Fryderyk Chopin, 1955 Woodcut on paper M/985
Images of the composer in everyday situations are rare in the Chopin iconography. Here, he is seated sideways, in a relaxed pose, straddling the sill of an open window, his eyes half closed. This characteristic profile evokes other similar views of the composer, including the romantic pose captured by Teofil Kwiatkowski and Wojciech Weiss’s highly expressive Chopin. Yet neither of those works has the disengaged lightness combined with the intense focus of this woodcut by Mieczysław Jurgielewicz, a pupil of the outstanding woodcut artist Władysław Skoczylas. The roughness of the woodcut seems far removed from the airy, supple lines of the art of the first decades of the nineteenth century. Jurgielewicz’s woodcut, from 1955, seeks a different Chopin – not the ‘sylph of the piano’ that Astolphe de Custine described, or the ethereal and neurotic romantic that numerous biographers of the second half of the nineteenth century saw in him. Jurgielewicz’s Chopin is portrayed in his ordinary, everyday life. That does not mean that he is ordinary – but he is not accompanied by symbols elucidating his creative output. He is not allegorised. He is not embroiled in national myths.
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Text, photography and recordings of artistic performances © The Fryderyk Chopin Institute, 2018 This edition © Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd, 2018 First published in 2018 by Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd 10 Lion Yard Tremadoc Road London SW4 7NQ, United Kingdom www.scalapublishers.com In association with The Fryderyk Chopin Institute www.chopin.nifc.pl
ISBN 978-1-78551-126-4 Translation from Polish to English: John Comber Musicological and editorial consultant: Professor John Rink (University of Cambridge) Art history consultant: Professor Maria Poprzęcka (University of Warsaw) Special thanks to: Kamila Stępień-Kutera, Marta Tabakiernik, Aleksandra Urbańska Project manager: Hannah Bowen Editor: Sandra Pisano Designer: Nigel Soper Coordination: Anna Adamusińska-Tasak, Łukasz Kaczmarowski Printed in Turkey 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of The Fryderyk Chopin Museum and Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd. Photographs by: Marcin Czechowicz (front cover flap, pp. 4–5); Waldemar Kielichowski (pp. 7–78); Wojciech Grzędziński (back cover flap). Images © The Fryderyk Chopin Institute, Warsaw, 2018; © Institute of Music and Dance, Warsaw, 2018 (p. 25); © Adagp, Paris, 2018 (p. 72).
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This undertaking was realised by The Fryderyk Chopin Institute as part of the ‘Polish Music Heritage’ programme financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Front cover: Wojciech Weiss Preparatory study for the painting Chopin, 1899 (see pp. 30–33) Frontispiece: Tadeusz Trepkowski Poster of the 5th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, 22 February to 21 March 1955 (detail) Colour offset print by Drukarnia im. Rewolucji Październikowej, Warsaw MP/3 (see more pp. 70–73) Back cover: Franz-Xaver Winterhalter Portrait of Fryderyk Chopin, 1847 (see pp. 66–67)