History
article | Reading time5 min
Discover George Sand's aristocratic and popular origins!
Maurice de Saxe, the great-grandfather
The salon at Nohant is a veritable "portrait gallery" of George Sand'saristocratic ancestry.
In the beginning, we might say, was Maurice de Saxe, Marshal of France, son of Augustus II of Poland and Marie-Aurore de Koenisgsmark, a Swedish countess. Maurice de Saxe had a daughter, Marie-Aurore de Saxe, with the actress Marie Rinteau, more elegantly known as Madame de Verrière, on October 19, 1748: she was to become the grandmother of the future George Sand.
© Colombe Clier / Centre des monuments nationaux
Marie-Aurore de Saxe, the grandmother
Marie-Aurore, educated at Saint-Cyr, married Louis-Claude Dupin de Francueil, farmer-general in Châteauroux, at the age of sixty-one. She was twenty-nine. The young bride seemed infatuated with her old husband. She would later tell her granddaughter that he was "the dearest affection of her life".
Monsieur Dupin de Francueil was an enlightened man, with a passion for the encyclopedists and philosophers of the Enlightenment. He was also an excellent musician. He was also very wealthy, and when he died three years before the Revolution, he left his widow an annual income of seventy-five thousand francs. His portrait features prominently in the salon at Nohant.
© Pascal Lemaître / Centre des monuments nationaux
Maurice Dupin, the father
A son, named Maurice after his grandfather, was born of this union in 1778. During the French Revolution, Madame Dupin de Francueil's widow had a few setbacks and was imprisoned under the Terror. Later, fleeing the capital with her son, she decided to settle them in Nohant, the land she had acquired.
Maurice was enrolled as a chasseur à cheval in the French Revolution. The grandson of the Maréchal de Saxe was quickly promoted to aide-de-camp. As a soldier, he is depicted on the walls of the salon in his Brandenburg uniform. On the battlefields of Napoleon and during the Italian campaign, he met Sophie-Victoire Delaborde, who became his wife.
The result was a little girl named Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, who would go down in history as George Sand.
Marie-Aurore de Saxe took umbrage at this union, which she considered a true mésalliance. George Sand, on the other hand, was always very positive about her popular origins. Her mother was the daughter of a simple birder on the banks of the Seine. She was fond of declaring:
My mother was of the vagabond and degraded race of the Bohemians of this world.
There is only one surviving depiction of Sophie-Victoire Delaborde, drawn from memory by her daughter, as commoners did not have their portraits taken.
© Pascal Lemaître / Centre des monuments nationaux
Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, known as George Sand
After the death of her grandmother, young Aurore goes to stay with her father's friends near Melun. There, she meets the man she soon marries: Baron Casimir Dudevant. The couple had two children, a boy and a girl: Maurice and Solange.
Shortly after the births, the couple separated and Aurore Dudevant, having regained her independence, became George Sand for good. This is how she came to be portrayed by Auguste Charpentier in a famous portrait dated 1838.
Her long, black hair, enhanced by wildflowers, surrounds a perfect, oval face. Her large eyes light up a rather bistre complexion. The mouth is delicately drawn, with two dimples on either side. There are many portraits of George Sand, but this is undoubtedly the most striking.
Maurice and Solange were also lucky enough to be portrayed by the painter. Solange is shown in profile, while Maurice is painted from the front. The latter's gaze is reminiscent of that of his mother, George Sand. In the background, a backdrop of clouds adds depth to the works.
These three portraits are presented in the living room of the house. In the center, George Sand is surrounded on either side by portraits of her children.
© Pascal Lemaître / Centre des monuments nationaux
Maurice Dudevant
Born on June 30, 1823, Maurice followed in his mother's footsteps. He was born curious. Paleontologist, entomologist, historian, archaeologist, illustrator, painter, caricaturist and puppeteer, he dabbled in everything.
In 1862, he married Marcelina Calamatta, known as Lina. This late marriage produced three children: Marc-Antoine, nicknamed Cocoton, born in 1863 (he sadly died the following year), Aurore, known as Lolo in 1866 and Gabrielle, known as Titite in 1868.
© Alain Lonchampt / Centre des monuments nationaux
Solange Dudevant
Solange, the couple's second child, was born on September 13, 1828. An indomitable character, George Sand called her a lion. In 1847, she married sculptor Auguste Clésinger. Together, they had two daughters, two Jeanne-Gabrielles. The first died a few days after birth; the second, nicknamed Nini, delighted her grandmother before her tragic death at barely six years of age.
A photograph of the child hung in George Sand's bedroom for many years.
George, Lina and Maurice placed all their love for Maurice's two little daughters, who gave Nohant back all its cheerfulness.
© Pascal Lemaître / Centre des monuments nationaux
In photo
© Pascal Lemaître / Centre des monuments nationaux
©Colombe Clier Centre des monuments nationaux
© Pascal Lemaître / Centre des monuments nationaux
© Reproduction Philippe Berthé / CMN
© Pascal Lemaître / Centre des monuments nationaux
© Reproduction Jean-Luc Paillé / Centre des monuments nationaux
© Alain Lonchampt / Centre des monuments nationaux
© Philippe Berthé / Centre des monuments nationaux
© Maison George Sand / Centre des monuments nationaux
© Reproduction Benjamin Gavaudo / CMN
© Colombe Clier / Centre des monuments nationaux
© Maison George Sand / Centre des monuments nationaux
Many portraits of George, Solange, Maurice, Lina, Aurore and Gabrielle evoke them throughout their lives. Often done in paint or sometimes in pencil, they are also in the form of photographic portraits taken by the famous Nadar or the photographer Verdot.
Numerous artists chose members of this illustrious family as their models! Charpentier, Delacroix, Thomas Couture, later Frédéric Lauth or Santaolaria... But also artists such as Musset, Clésinger and even Maurice Sand.
All these portraits, now spread throughout the house, help to give it its soul. They tell us the story of the ancestry and descent of the woman who became a committed writer and who still lives so magnificently in this illustrious home.
