Tradition / Chopin Institutions / Sites / memorabilia / in France
Chopin monuments in France
Fryderyk Chopin arrived in Paris on October 5, 1831.[1] The Paris that he dreamt about and where he would soon reach the peak of his fame, was at that time the unquestionable artistic center of Europe. After a long trip from Strasbourg by stagecoach lasting around 70 hours, Chopin reached the center of the city. The young composer, hungry for sensations, longing to conquer the capital of France, rented a furnished room on the fourth floor of a tenement house at 27 Boulevard Poissonnière. In a letter dated November 18 of that year to Norbert Alfons Kumelski[2], he writes about the room: "... you wouldn't believe how nice I'm living, I have a small room beautifully furnished in mahogany, with a porch on the boulevard, from which I can see from Montmartre to the Panteon and along the entire beautiful world; many will be jealous of my view, but no one of my stairs". From his balcony, Chopin could observe demonstrations for the benefit of Poland, directed against Louis Philippe. In the house where he lived, there was a fashionable store Grand Bazar de l'industrie. By this time the Parisian boulevards with their cafes, covered arcades, stores, theaters, and of course music publishers, were already the factual center of the city. The house in which Chopin lived still stands, and a commemorative plaque reminds us of his stay.[3] Owing to the efforts of the "Société Chopin à Paris", Chopin's room has remained unchanged in character to the present.
After several months spent in Paris, Fryderyk Chopin moved to a small apartment in the quiet backstreets of Cité Bergère in March 1832, where elegant houses in the Empire style were located. The decision to move to a furnished apartment on the second floor of house number 4, was instigated by his better social position in Paris circles. After the success of his first concert in the Playel Hall in 1832, Chopin, with impeccable manners, great elegance and enormous talent, became a sought after teacher of music for persons from upper society. Although Cité Bergère initially satisfied the requirements of the young musician, Fryderyk Chopin decided to move again. The music lessons, along with the publication of music compositions, that were his main source of income, became increasingly burdensome, requiring travel to student houses and the loss of valuable time. Hence, Chopin decided to give lessons at his home. The chosen elegant neighborhood along Chausée D'Antin was lined with homes of the new aristocracy, which gained in significance during the rule of Louis Philippe. The great bankers, Laffitte and Rothschild lived here and luxury fashion houses and stores were located in the area as well. As the district grew, which initially served the interests of the great financiers, artists also settled in, attracted by the proximity of the boulevards, with their cafes and theaters pulsating with life. In June 1833 Chopin found a flat at 5 Chaussée d'Antin (until 1830 this street was called Mont-Blanc), in the now non-existing Hôtel Epinay (Mozart stopped here during his stay in Paris in 1778). The flat was previously inhabited by an affluent German naturalist with diverse interests, whose passion was music, doctor Hermann Franck. He hosted the elite of young people, musicians and writers, and most likely Chopin met Heinrich Heine here. The flat was so spacious and costly that Chopin decided to share it with the slightly older physician and music lover, Aleksander Hofman[4], whom he met while still in Warsaw. Unfortunately, Hofman was a smoker, and Chopin couldn't stand cigarette smoke, hence they only lived together a few months. But as early as April 1834, his childhood friend, Jan Matuszyński, then studying medicine in Paris, moved in with him in the luxury furnished apartment. According to his letter, we find out that Chopin gave many lessons at the apartment and, in the evening, both friends sometimes went out to visit others or went to the theater.[5] In December 1835, the duchess Anna Czartoryska organized a charity sale in the adjacent house. During the day, women from the society sold luxury articles at a "bazaar", in the evenings there were charity concerts in that Chopin participated, playing together with pianist Wojciech Sowiński. In September 1836 Chopin, returning from a trip to Germany during which his unofficial engagement to Maria Wodzińska in Dresden was held, took up residence at 38 Chaussée d'Antin (this house no longer exists). Jan Matuszyński was soon to marry Teresa Bocquet and Chopin decided to find a smaller flat, expecting to soon be living by himself. The move, which he conducted at a distance, was carried out by his friends. The "exceptionally nice and elegant" flat[6] was comprised of a hallway, where guests were received by a servant who barely spoke French. Most likely this frightened away many people who wanted to pay a visit to Chopin. Despite this, there were several music evenings in this flat, that Franz Liszt later wrote about, praising the charm of Polish hospitality. Józef Brzowski (1804-1884), a cellist and composer, gave an account of one of them: on December 13, 1836, besides Chopin's closest friends Wojciech Grzymała and Jan Matuszyński, guests included Astolphe de Custine, Pierre-Antoine Berryer, Johann-Peter Pixis, Victor Schoelcher, Adolphe Nourrit, Eugène Sue, Franz Liszt, Marie d'Agoult and George Sand, who spent almost the entire evening on the sofa set up opposite the fireplace, smoking cigars.[7] Liszt recollects another evening, mentioning Heine, Mickiewicz and Delacroix among the guests. Both Liszt and Marie d'Agoult, and slightly later George Sand, lived in the nearby Hôtel de France on rue Laffitte from October 1836. The young composer was a frequent guest at their salon where they hosted writers and artists.
Upon returning from Majorca on June 1, 1839, when Chopin visited George Sand's estate in Nohant for the first time, he was enchanted by the warm atmosphere of the park and the home furnished with great taste and at the same time simplicity. George Sand inherited Nohant after the death of her grandmother, Madame Dupin de Francueil, in 1821. Over the next nine years, Chopin split his time between summer months in Nohant, and Paris. This was the most prolific period of his life. In Nohant, surrounded by George Sand's care and attention, though frequently ill, he could compose, comfortably dividing his time between work, walks and family life. Chopin's return to Paris meant another move. Notice was given to the expensive apartment at 38 rue Chausée d'Antin while on his way to Nohant, though still in Marseille. Chopin again asked for help from friends, Wojciech Grzymała and Julian Fontana.[8] Jan Matuszyński, sick himself, could only deal with searching for a servant. The choice came down to a house at 7 rue Tronchet.[9] The composer watched over the move from a distance, and at his written request light colored wallpaper was installed (Chopin was particularly fond of the pearl-gray color), furniture was repaired (the bed and writing desk), muslin drapes were made for the bedroom and a sofa brought to the dining room, which Chopin desired to upholster in a white material just like the chairs. Julian Fontana was also to find an apartment for George Sand and her children according to Chopin's instructions.[10] Not far from Chopin's flat, two charming pavilions stood available at 16 Place Pigalle, set back in the garden. George Sand was enchanted, Chopin as well.[11] After the writer's move into the new flat on October 15, the composer was happy to spend afternoons and evenings at her home, gradually getting used to spending the night. His apartment on rue Tronchet, located opposite the Madeleine Church then under construction, was an elegant new house with a yard bordering the garden of the beautiful Hôtel de Pourtalès. Nevertheless, the mezzanine apartment facing the yard lacked sun. Cold and damp, it affected the Chopin's health. Despite this, he continued to receive guests and give lessons there, which began rather late, starting at 11, due to his health and constant coughing fits.[12]
In the afternoon, around 4:00 pm, Chopin came to George Sand's apartment. Her saloon guests were mainly artists: Liszt, Thalberg, Pauline García Viardot, Eugène Delacroix and others. Balzac describes her small but tastefully decorated apartment in letters to Ewelina Hańska.[13] In November 1841, after returning from Nohant, Chopin left his previous apartment on rue Tronchet and moved into the other, larger pavilion, rented by George Sand, which also contained her son Maurice's atelier. George Sand and her daughter Solange lived in the smaller pavilion. Chopin's apartment was comprised of a hallway, bedroom with windows overlooking the garden, a toilet, salon and dining room. Julian Fontana again handled the move. One of her first things she did was to take down the large paintings depicting any subject that could offend the eyes of young high society girls from the saloon in which Chopin planned to give lessons.[14]
There are several expressions concerning the allure of this corner of Paris, surrounded by gardens and trees, that already belonged to the district called Nouvelle Athènes where many artists and writers lived. This district was a bit further from Faubourg Saint-Germain, from which most of Chopin's clientèle was recruited. Some students sent a carriage for the professor, which was evidence for raising the lesson rate to 30 francs. Chopin was the most expensive professor of Paris.
In August 1842, Chopin and George Sand decided to rent two apartments in the center of the Nouvelle Athènes district, next to a quiet, charmful and small square, square d'Orléans (also called Cité des Trois Frères), around which elegant, English styled homes rose up. One entered this secluded place through a portal of the house at 34 rue Saint-Lazare (currently one passes from the side of rue Taitbout). On the facade of the house at no. 9, where Chopin lived, there is a memorial plaque[15], similar to the house at number 5, where George Sand lived. The plaque commemorates other residents as well, including the professor of the conservatory Pierre Joseph Zimmerman, Pauline Viardot, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, the father of Aleksander Dumas.[16] Slightly further on, Jean-Pierre Dantan had his atelier. A rectangular square full of greenery with a fountain in the middle. Chopin's relatively small flat was just a few steps from the apartments occupied by George Sand. Located on a mezzanine, it featured a hallway, a large salon with windows overlooking the square, and a bedroom, for the relatively small fee of 600 francs annually.[17] George Sand rented a larger apartment on the first floor to which Chopin came every evening. Three bedrooms, a workroom, dining room, two salons and kitchen, fully met the requirements of the writer and her family. Music evenings most frequently took place at George Sand's, but two sessions definitely took place in Chopin's apartment, for which he had a small, simple piano moved into the large, elegant and tastefully furnished salon, where a Playel piano stood in the center. During a lesson, if a coughing attack wore out the composer, he would go into the second room, not wanting to interrupt the student's playing. Chopin managed to move two more times. In mid-May 1849, after the final breakup of his relationship with George Sand, Chopin, in fleeing the cholera epidemic, moved to a spacious, furnished apartment in a house at 74 rue de Cahillot. Сhaillot, just like Passy or Auteuil, was then a village outside the city far from the urban bustle. At the same time, its proximity to the city favored these picturesque surroundings, which retained their rural aspect, centered around a booming main street with stores and adjacent farms. The clean air, quiet and greenery were to help restore the composer's weakened health. Friends came to visit him, among them Eugène Delacroix and Cyprian Norwid.18 Chopin wrote to his sister Ludwika in June 1849: "The weather today is beautiful, I'm sitting in the saloon and admiring the total view of Paris: the tower, Tuileries, Assemblée générale, St. Germ[ain], L'Aux[errois], St. Etienne du Mont, Notre-Dame, Panteon, St. Sulpice, Val-de-Grâce, Invalides, from five windows and gardens between them ..."[19]
The last place where the composer stayed was an apartment in the house at 12 Vendôme Square, to which Fryderyk Chopin moved between 24 - 29 September 1849. The spacious, south-facing, five-room apartment, was to help the patient bear the winter season in Paris. The rooms, connected to each other with an enfilad, were located on the left wing of the house on the mezzanine level. Chopin also rented a kitchen and servant's quarters on the ground floor. Friends chose the apartment and handled the move. Due to the rainy and cold October days, Chopin could not use the sun room. The arrangement of the premises was changed and adapted to the needs of the present owner - rooms were adapted for office use and connected by a long hallway. The house has a plaque commemorating Chopin's presence, though visits are not allowed to the apartment where he lived. The commemorative plaque mentions the place of Chopin's death, who died on October 17, 1849 at 2:00 am.[20]
A commemorative mass for Fryderyk Chopin was held at the La Madeleine Church in Paris on October 30th. His coffin was exhibited during the mass on October 30, 1849, at which Mozart's Requiem was played at the request of the deceased artist, performed by Luigi Lablache, Alexis Dupont, and, separated from listeners by a drape, Paulina Viardot and Jeanne Castellan.[21]
Besides Paris, Chopin frequently stayed at George Sand's family estate in Nohant (département de l'Indre), where he spent the summer months from 1839 to 1846 (excluding 1840). His room on the first floor looked out to a beautiful garden. This room, with a carpet on the floor was decorated with blue-red wallpaper with Chinese patterns. The piano was located in the adjacent room. This period during which George Sand took care of him belonged to one of the happiest and most prolific in his life. Sometimes there were excursions from Nohant, to Montgivray, and in 1843 along the Creuze River to the ruins of medieval Crozant castle. The writer's home now contains a museum devoted to her, with many family memorabilia. Unfortunately, after the couple split up Chopin's room was refurnished and looks completely different now.
On March 12, 1838, Fryderyk Chopin was enthusiastically received in Rouen, where he performed the concerto in E minor at a hall in the Hôtel de Ville at the request of Antoni Orłowski.[22]
From February 24 to May 22, 1839, Chopin stayed in Marseille upon returning from Majorca. He played on the organ of the Notre-Dame-du Mont church during a funeral mass for tenor Adolphe Nourrite on April 24, 1839.[23]
Fryderyk Chopin led a lively social life, gave concerts and frequented many salons of the aristocracy and great bourgeoisie. Chopin's first public concert took place on February 25, 1832 in the Pleyel concert hall, serving as the flagship of the firm producing famous pianos. Between 1815-1851 it was located in the still standing building on 9 rue Cadet. Chopin then performed along with other artists, including Liszt, Mendelssohn, and Kalkbrenner in performing his Concerto in E minor opus 11 and Variations opus 2. Chopin's last public concert was also held here, on February 16, 1848. He performed at Playel, on 20 rue Rochechouart on April 26, 1841. He also gave concerts and was a frequent guest as a listener at the Paris Conservatoire on rue Bergère and other Paris concert halls.
Invited by ladies of the aristocracy, he frequented the most elegant homes, including at Count Apponyi's. Such evenings often ended in making music together, and Chopin, who felt best in this rather intimate atmosphere, was much sought-after. He played with his favorite student, Karol Filtsch, at the Rothschilds in January 1843. He also gave private concerts at his students' homes, for example at Eliza Peruzzi's. He visited and made music at Hector Berlioz's at 10 rue Saint Denis, and was a frequent guest of his great admirer, Astolphe de Custine, visiting him at the estate in St. Gratien.
On February 16, 1838, Chopin performed at the Tuileries palace in front of the royal family. He then received a present of a porcelain tea service, decorated with the image of the royal couple. He also played with Ignacy Moscheles before the royal family on October 29, 1839 in the long gone Saint-Cloud palace. The palace in Saint-Cloud was destroyed, only the park is open to visitors nowadays.
He played again in the Tuileries palace in April and December 1841 and, in a more select group, in February 1842.
In April 1832 the Polish Literary Society was founded, headed by Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski. Chopin found himself among the first members of the Society, demonstrated by a January 1833 letter of thanks for admitting him.[24] The composer was a regular at the Polish Club, founded by Józef Kaszyc[25], on 39 rue Godot de Mauroy. When a guest at General Kniaziewicz's home in Enghien and Montmorency, he visited the home of Jean Jacques Rousseau and was also a guest of the Czartoryski duchy in their salons on rue du Roule, Faubourg Saint-Honoré, and later in the Hotel Lambert purchased by the Czartoryskis. In 1835 he participated in a highly successful concert, organized at the great hall of the Italian Opera for the benefit of the Polish Ladies Society, headed by princess Anna Czartoryska. A private concert, along with Antoni Kątski, took place at the Hotel Lambert in 1845, where Chopin spent many evenings during the next year, generally in the company of George Sand.
He also maintained contact with Adam Mickiewicz, visiting him in his apartment, and earlier together with George Sand, listening to his lectures at the Collège de France.
The only place in Paris where keepsakes of Fryderyk Chopin were kept is the Chopin Salon at the Polish Library in Paris on the St. Louis Island at 6 Quai d'Orléans. Similarly to the Adam Mickiewicz Museum and the Bolesław Biegas Museum, it is open to the public at large. Fryderyk Chopin was a member of the Literary Society, whose traditions are continued by the Polish Historical-Literary Society. In the newly designed Salon opened in the spring of 2009, thanks to support of the Zaleski Foundation, the displays include Chopin's chair from the flat on Plac Vendôme purchased by his friend, the painter and pianist, Teofil Kwiatkowski and bequeathed by his family, a locket with a strand of the composer's hair, a photo from the missing daguerreotype by L.A. Bisson from 1846, a "½ queue" Playel piano from 1845 along with numerous iconographic documents, drawings, etchings and pictures commemorating Chopin's stay in Paris and his contacts, both with the Polish émigré community as well as the French community. His obituary with an invitation to a mass on October 30, 1845 at the St. Mary Magdalene Church (submitted by Ludwika Jędrzejewicz), a plaster cast of the composer's left hand, a posthumous mask and medallion from the grave at the Père-Lachaise cemetery by Jean Baptiste Clèsinger, along with sketches in oil and drawings, "Polonez Chopina" by Teofil Kwiatkowski, complete the exposition. The Historical-Literary Society also possesses three music manuscripts by Chopin. They are the Lithuanian Song and two mazurkas: A flat major, written in the Album of Maria Szymanowska, and C sharp minor, opus 6 no. 2, as well as several of the first publications of Chopin's compositions, letters to Wojciech Grzymała, Napoleon Orda and Ludwik Plater. Chopin memorabilia are also located at the Musée de la Vie Romantique at 16 rue Chaptal, where the atelier of painter Ary Scheffer was once located in the Hotel Scheffer-Renan estate. Besides the cast of Chopin's left hand by Jean Baptiste Clésinger, made around 1849, the winter garden features a model of the Chopin memorial by Jacques Froment Meurice, and several souvenirs, for example, a fan with caricatures of George Sand's friends (made in Nohant in 1838 by August Charpentier (1815-1880)), portraits of George Sand and her family, as well as effigies of personages from the music and literary world who were regulars of George Sand's saloon. Chopin's friend, the painter Ary Scheffer who had his atelier here, painted two oil portraits of the musician. One of them survived in the artist's museum in Doordrecht. (The second, presenting the composer in a half-form, was burned after September 19, 1863 during the robbery of Izabella and Antoni Barciński's apartment in Warsaw on Nowy Świat , after the attempt on the Tsarist viceroy of the Polish Kingdom, Teodor hr. Berg. His copies are presented in the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków in the Chopin room of the Historical -Literary Society in the Polish Library in Paris).
In the modernistically furnished Musée de la musique there is a piano built by the firm Ignace Playel et Cie (no. 7267) from 1839, which Chopin played on in the years 1839 and 1841, a daguerreotype photo by L.A. Bisson, along with iconographic documents, including a charmful, anonymous caricature presenting George Sand and Chopin at the piano. Elsewhere, the Bibliothèque nationale de France in the Départament de la Musique and the Bibliotheque - musée de l' Opéra, in addition to musical scores and their first publications, possess rich iconographic materials concerning Chopin circles. The preserved posthumous mask of the composer, taken by Jean Baptiste Clésinger right after Chopin's death, with its visible traces of the painful illness that Chopin wrestled with. Nevertheless, it is not exhibited or open to the public. The Czartoryski Museum in Kraków was bequeathed a copy. Clésinger made another cast several hours later, more well known, in which the youthful facial expression of the deceased is restored. This mask is shown both in the Chopin Salon of the Polish Library as well as the Musée de la Vie Romantique.
The composer's grave is located in the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris in plot 11, adorned with the medallion of his effigy from a profile carved by Jean-Baptiste Clésingera, unveiled on the first anniversary of Fryderyk Chopin's death on October 17, 1850. There is a monument by Jacques Froment Meurice in Monceau Park, erected in 1906, presenting Chopin, evoking the symbolic images of the Funeral March, with a woman's figure crying in pain at his feet, while a soaring angel in the depths sprinkles the scene with flowers. In the Luxembourg Garden, the original bronze bust, now lost, chiseled by Georges Dubois in 1900 and placed on a high pedestal, was more modest. It was replaced with a sculpture carved by Bolesław Syrewicz, adorning, like many other monuments, this most beautiful Parisian park.
The activity of the Société Chopin should be mentioned, funded by the late Elisabeth Parmentier, which organizes Chopin concerts every year in the orangerie of the parc de Bagatelle in the months of June and July, and the Fryderyk Chopin Conservatory of the the 15th arrondissement in Paris.
Anna Czarnocka
English translation: Philip Stoeckle
[1] See: Helman Zofia and Hanna Wróblewska-Straus, Kiedy Fryderyk Chopin przyjechał do Paryża ?, in: "Ruch Muzyczny", year LI, 18 March 2007, no. 6, p. 35 - 38.
[2] Bronisław Edward Sydow (study), Korespondencja Fryderyka Chopina, Warszawa, 1955, vol.1, p. 187 (letter to Norbert Alfons Kumelski in Berlin, 18.11.1831), later cited as: KFC. Chopin wrote: "...on my fifth floor ..." , but most likely this included the ground floor.
[3] The entrance gate currently features a plaque reading: "Frédéric Chopin habita cette maison 1831 - 1832"
[4] Franciszek German, Fryderyk Chopin i Aleksander Hofman (dzieje przyjaźni artystycznej), in: "Rocznik Chopinowski", R. 13 (1981), p. 49 - 52. Hofman was "taken in" by Chopin at the end of 1832 to the flat in Cité Bergère no. 4.
[5] Ferdynand Hoesick, Chopin. Życie i twórczość, Warszawa 1911, vol. 2, p. 115.
[6] Krystyna Kobylańska, Miscellanea inedita, in: "Ruch Muzyczny" (1997) no. 3, p. 33.
[7] Marie-Paule Rambeau, Chopin. L'enchanteur autoritaire, Paris, 2005, p. 399.
[8] KFC, vol. 1, p. 338 (letter to Julian Fontana in Paris, March 1839) and p. 346-347 (letter to Julian Fontana in Paris, with a postscript from 25.4.1839).
[9] KFC, vol. 1, p. 356-357 (letter to Julian Fontana in Paris from 21.9.1839).
[10] KFC, vol. 1, p. 360-362 (letter to Julian Fontana in Paris from 1.10.1839).
[11] KFC, vol. 1, p. 365 (letter to Julian Fontana from 10.1839).
[12] George Sand, Histoire de ma vie, Paris 1970, vol. 2, part 5, chapter XIII, p. 434.
[13] Honoré de Balzac, Lettres à l'Etrangère, Paris 1990, vol. 1, p. 527-528 (letter from 15.3.1841).
[14] KFC, vol. 2, p. 40-42 (letter to Julian Fontana in Paris from 6/7.10.1841). George Sand, Correspondance, Paris 1964-1991, 15 volumes, vol. 5, p. 455 (letter of George Sand to Eugène Pelletan from 9.10.1841).
[15] "FREDERIC CHOPIN habita cette maison de 1842 a 1849"
[16] Square d'Orléans/ Cour privée, appelée autrefois Cité des Trois Frères, elle eut son entrée au 36 de la rue Saint-Lazare jusqu'en 1854, date à laquelle fut percée la section de la rue Taitbout entre la rue Saint-Lazare et la rue d'Aumale. / C'est de la fin du XVIIIème siècle que datent les premières constructions sur le terrain. / Puis après 1797, M. et Mme Auber, propriétaires sous la Révolution, y édifièrent six immeubles bas, dont l'un sur deux étages "était décoré de quatre colonnes ". / La propriété passera ensuite entre de nombreuses mains, au rythme des spéculations immobilières qui transformèrent le quartier. La "Nouvelle Athènes ", surnom du quartier, devint alors le lieu de résidence préféré des artistes et des élégants. La célèbre actrice Mlle Mars acheta la "Cité " 250 000 francs-or en 1822 et la revendit le double deux ans après. / Des investisseurs anglais successifs, dont l'architecte Cresy, furent propriétaires du Square entre 1830 et 1857. Ils agrandirent et remodelèrent les bâtiments, qui prirent leur configuration actuelle. Rebaptisé "square d'Orléans " sous la monarchie de Juillet, il fut acquis en 1863 par Jacques-Pierre Normand qui avait fait fortune dans le commerce du cachemire. / Le square d'Orléans abrita des artistes célèbres au cours du XIXème siècle : Frédéric Chopin au pavillon 9, George Sand au pavillon 5, Zimmermann professeur au Conservatoire et beau-père de Gounaud au pavillon 7, la danseuse Marie-Sophie Taglioni au pavillon 2, Pauline Viardot, sœur de la Malibran, le sculpteur Dantan fils, le pianiste Kalkbrenner, Alexandre Dumas Père et sa maîtresse la comédienne Bella Kreisamer et plus récemment le peintre Serge Ivanoff.
[17] Rambeau, op. cit., p. 651.
[18] See Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Czarne Kwiaty
[19] KFC, vol. 2 (letter to Ludwika Jędrzejewiczowa in Warsaw, from 25 6 1849), p. 302.
George Marek and Maria Gordon-Smith. Chopin. A biography. New York, London, Harper & Row, [1978], p. VIII,IX, p. 238. See also: Chopin and his work in the Context of Culture - Studies edited by Irena Poniatowska. Polish Chopin Academy, The Fryderyk Chopin Institute, 2003, vol. 1, pp. 77-78.
[20] The text on the plaque fixed to the front wall of the house at 12 Vendôme Square may suggest that Chopin's apartment was located in the front of this historical building. Basing on the composer's inheritance documents, Henri Musielak was the first to establish the exact location of the apartment (Ruch Muzyczny issue no. 14, 1978. See also: Chopin and his Work in the Context of Culture - Studies edited by Irena Poniatowska. Polish Chopin Academy, Fryderyk Chopin Institute, 2003. Materials from the Second International Chopin Congress in Warsaw, vol.1, pp.77-78)
[21] Rambeau, op. cit., p. 899. "The Musical World", 10 11 1849.
[22] Rambeau, op.cit., p. 447. "L'Echo de Rouen" from 13 3 1838, "Journal de Rouen" from 13 3 1838).
[23] Rambeau, op.cit., p. 520. George Sand, Correspondance, op.cit., vol. 4, p. 645 (letter to Charlotte Marliani from 26.4.1839).
[24] Copy of the document is presented at the Chopin Salon of the Historical-Literary Society of the Polish Library in Paris.
[25] Polski Słownik Biograficzny, Wrocław-Warsaw-Kraków, 1966-1967, vol. XII, p. 212-213.