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article | Reading time3 min
Discover this singular space where the Sand family rests.
The cemetery
The cemetery is located between the garden and the communal cemetery.
In 1855, following the tragic death of 6-year-old Jeanne-Gabrielle (Solange's daughter), George Sand exchanged a plot of land so that the graves of her relatives would form part of her estate.
The writer was buried in this cemetery on June 10, 1876, beneath a Volvic lava stone protected by a centuries-old yew tree.
Edmond Plauchut (1824-1909), traveller, journalist and writer, is the only "foreigner" buried in the Sand family cemetery. His tombstone bears the epitaph:
They think I'm dead, but I live here.
© Maison George Sand / Centre des monuments nationaux
The death and funeral of George Sand
On the morning of June 8, 1876 , George Sand died at the age of 72, in her blue room, surrounded by her family. For several years, she had been suffering from intestinal pains that had become unbearable, forcing her to stay in bed from June 1 onwards. Numerous doctors tried to treat and relieve her, but to no avail, and diagnosed intestinal obstruction as the cause of her death.
Until the day before she was bedridden, she was still working on a novel entitled Albine Fiori. This unfinished text was published in 1881 in La Nouvelle Revue, a literary journal founded and edited by Juliette Adam. Shortly before this, George Sand had written an article on a work by Ernest Renan for the newspaper Le Temps, to which she had been writing most of her articles for several years. The article was published a few days after Sand's death.
On June 10, 1876, following a ceremony in the church opposite her home, the writer was laid to rest in the family cemetery, surrounded by family and friends.
I cried at her funeral like a calf.
Victor Hugo sends a funeral oration read by a mutual friend, novelist and playwright Paul Meurice.
© Alain Lonchampt / Centre des monuments nationaux
The writer left us a considerable body of printed work: some 70 novels, 30 short stories, 20 fairy tales, 30 plays, around 400 press articles, an autobiography, dozens of prefaces... Her works enabled her to meet the expenses associated with Nohant and guaranteed her independence. In her day, it was rare for a woman to be financially independent thanks to her work. The death certificate testifies to the status of women artists in the 19th century, as it states "without profession" !
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