Portrait of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand

Chopin at the piano, George Sand listening as she sews: Delacroix painted his two friends together, then the canvas was cut in two after his death. Today the lovers hang in different countries, Chopin in Paris and Sand in Copenhagen.

The story behind the painting

George Sand, the French Romantic novelist, had been Delacroix's friend for years, though he did not think much of her books. She met Chopin in 1836 and from 1838 lived with him for ten years, the decade in which he wrote much of his best music. Sand introduced Delacroix to Chopin in 1838, and the two men stayed close friends until the composer's death. Delacroix made preparatory sketches and then painted the double portrait. Little is known of how it came about, or whether it was a commission or a gift. Wikipedia dates it 1838, while Wikidata gives 1837.

What to look for

The double portrait showed Chopin playing the piano while Sand sat to his right, listening and sewing, one of her favourite activities. Delacroix borrowed a piano so that he could paint it in his studio, yet the piano is one of the parts he never painted, because the work was left unfinished. Sand's half is usually seen as the more interesting. In bust sized portraits of the time the sitter was normally still, but here she is reacting to the music, animated and full of feeling.

Meaning and intent

The picture was about listening as much as playing. Sand's portion was conceived as a counterpoint to Chopin's, not as a picture on its own, which is why it breaks so many rules of portraiture. Seen this way, the painting captures a moment between two lovers and a friend who knew them both: music passing from one person to another. The sources note that their relationship later changed, as Chopin's failing health turned Sand into his caregiver.

Legacy

The canvas stayed in Delacroix's studio until his death. Soon after, it was cut into two tightly cropped pieces: Chopin's is only a head, Sand's shows her upper body, and large areas of the original were lost. The split was likely made because the owner believed two paintings would sell better than one. Chopin's portrait is now in the Louvre in Paris, and Sand's hangs at the Ordrupgaard Museum in Copenhagen, so the two lovers who were painted side by side are now kept apart.

Did you know?

Unfinished double portrait by Eugène Delacroix, dated 1838 by Wikipedia and 1837 by Wikidata.
Delacroix borrowed a piano to paint it in his studio, but never painted the piano.
Cut in two after Delacroix's death.
Chopin's half is in the Louvre; Sand's is at Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen.

Wikipedia · Wikidata