An afternoon with Chopin

Hi everyone,

I just got back from a lovely afternoon with Fa visiting La Musée de la Vie Romantique and an exhibition in homage to Chopin. It is the bicentenary of his death this year and so we'll be seeing quite a lot of him - remember how it was for Berlioz?

The Musée de la Vie Romantique (Museum of Romantic Life) stands at the foot of Montmartre in the 9th arrondissement, 16 rue Chaptal, in an 1830 hôtel particulier facing two twin-studios, a winter-garden and a charming courtyard today filled with beaming daffodils. A cobbled courtyard at the end of a tiny and discrete alleyway... A real haven of peace from the hustle and bustle of the surrounding Montmartre streets.

The museum building was once the Paris base of the painter Ary Scheffer (1795-1858) and was also used by Ary Renan, his grand nephew. For decades Scheffer and his daughter hosted Friday-evening salons, among the most famous in La Nouvelle Athènes. George Sand (1804-1876) used to come as a neighbour with Chopin, meeting Eugène Delacroix, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Alphonse de Lamartine and Pauline Viardot. Later in the century, Charles Dickens, Ivan Turgueniev and Charles Gounod attended regularly, so really, we were rubbing shoulders with the best of them.

Today the museum displays numerous mementos of George Sand, including portraits, household possessions, jewellery with famous plaster casts of Sand's sensuous arm (eek!) and Chopin's elegant right hand, which reminded me of the silver box in the Addams Family!

Delacroix was one of Chopin's closest friends and he painted him several times. The most famous is one of the composer with George Sand leaning admiringly over him. After Delacroix's death, the canvas was cut in two - today the painting of George Sand is conserved at the Ordrupgaard Museum in Copenhagen. Most of the paintings of Chopin show a melancholy, pretty ghostly face - the features of one ravaged by illness as indeed he was for many years. However, Fa was told by a friend of hers who is a music genius that he actually had a great sense of humour. i'm not sure if I'd go with that, but hey...

After the Polish uprising in Warsaw of 1830, France welcomed a number of exiles to Paris amongst which was Chopin. The dramatic painting, Polonia, is a cry of revolt by Ary Scheffer in favour of Poland, crushed by the Russian boot in 1831. This martyred Poland is depicted by a young woman thrown to the ground, stamped on under the foot of a blood thirsty cossack. The tearing apart of a lost homeland was a massive source of inspiration for Chopin: his Polonaises and Mazurkas are nothing less than 'hidden canons beneath carpets of flowers' (Schumann).

Other paintings by Delacroix, Huet, Delaroche, Corot and Balfourier grace the walls with scenes of Paris, Nohant and Majorca.

Liszt, whose relationship with Chopin was particularly tumultuous, was also present on the walls of the museum . His monumental portrait by Lehmann (left) really does evoke the rivalry between the two virtuosos, underlined by a quote from the critic Ernest Legouvé who told Liszt, 'Chopin is, I believe, entire. He is everything in one. You, on the other hand, as a pianist are present but as a composer, a little bit late'. Apparently, rumour has it that Liszt spent months writing one of his most technically complicated pieces that even he had trouble playing. he invited Chopin to have a look - and the master sat down and played it faultlessly... Liszt was not amused.

The piano on which Chopin played at musical soirées is present in the Grand Atelier (pix right - illegal pix so totally off centre - sorry!). Chopin was always very faithful to Camille Pleyel and played his pianos at concerts and evenings gladly, whereas Liszt was associated to Erard for years. I never connected composers with makes of piano, but why not after all, when today we associate sportsmen and film stars with all kinds of marks and products.

Chopin died at 12, Place Vendome on 17th October 1849 having been advised to move to an apartment facing west as far from humidity as he could get. Hmm...Paris probably wasn't quite the place for him, then.

Such a great place to pass an afternoon, with nocturnes, etudes and polonaises lulling us to bygone years as we walked from room to room of this cosy hotel particulier. I didn't know it was there and it's not in any of my guidebooks. Thank you, Fa!

We had to leave at 18h - we were literally thrown out! Clearly the staff wanted to get home on time. We walked around the streets of lower Montmartre, eyes on stalks in front of the chocolatiers, particularly A La Mere de Famille, a fabulous haven for choc lovers on rue de Fbg Montmartre. Beautifully modelled chocolate animals in all shapes and sizes for Easter...

We finished with dinner at Noura, the Lebanese near Opera. We had quite fancied going to see Johnny Deppe in Alice in Wonderland but chawarma and fattouche were calling loudly from across the street and it had begun to rain. No contest there, then. So good to find Lebanese food again after 3 months of tapas!

Have a good evening!

Love, Sarah

Comments

[Gustav]

No, that's coz the only legs anywhere to be seen where attached to the piano...!

[sairj]

I'm so glad you liked it! Chopin's right hand was a bit nasty to look at on its velvet cushion though! Beurk! Not to mention George Sand's arm! There were no legs anywhere though, as far as I could see!

[papa]

I was moved by your description of "Musée de la Vie Romantique" the house where literati of the time were gathering around Chopin piano to listen to his new compositions and see him playing...