Chopin - Another Photo

[NatBalance]

Perhaps this is old news for many of you but it was new to me when I found it last year. Being a Chopin fan since the age of about 8 I was really excited to find what appears to be another photo of the composer:-

http://jackgibbons.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/chopins-photograph.html

As I say in my comments at the bottom of the page "It looks so believably like the person in the 1849 photo and the features protrayed in portaits of him", and also like his death mask (why that is lit from below in the photos is beyond my understanding). Of the new photo I am puzzled why the author says "… it’s very hard at first to see anything in the photograph …" and later states that it's hard to see the expression on his face. I do not find the damage that bad.

Also, I have discovered something very interesting in a book I am reading about Chopin (by Arthur Hedley) and he says (page 7) of Chopin's sister "Louise, the eldest, bore (as an old daguerreotype shows) an extraordinary resemblance to her brother ….". Apparently there is a photo of his sister out there, but as far as I can find, it is not anywhere Google can find it. If anyone finds such a photo I would love to see it.

Does anyone have any information on this 'new' photo? Has it been proved false?

Rich

[Beef Oven!]

Perhaps this is old news for many of you but it was new to me when I found it last year. Being a Chopin fan since the age of about 8 I was really excited to find what appears to be another photo of the composer:-

http://jackgibbons.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/chopins-photograph.html

As I say in my comments at the bottom of the page "It looks so believably like the person in the 1849 photo and the features protrayed in portaits of him", and also like his death mask (why that is lit from below in the photos is beyond my understanding). Of the new photo I am puzzled why the author says "… it’s very hard at first to see anything in the photograph …" and later states that it's hard to see the expression on his face. I do not find the damage that bad.

Also, I have discovered something very interesting in a book I am reading about Chopin (by Arthur Hedley) and he says (page 7) of Chopin's sister "Louise, the eldest, bore (as an old daguerreotype shows) an extraordinary resemblance to her brother ….". Apparently there is a photo of his sister out there, but as far as I can find, it is not anywhere Google can find it. If anyone finds such a photo I would love to see it.

Does anyone have any information on this 'new' photo? Has it been proved false?

Rich

But don't rule out the stuff he wrote when he was seven.

[Roslynmuse]

Perhaps this is old news for many of you but it was new to me when I found it last year. Being a Chopin fan since the age of about 8 I was really excited to find what appears to be another photo of the composer:-

http://jackgibbons.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/chopins-photograph.html

As I say in my comments at the bottom of the page "It looks so believably like the person in the 1849 photo and the features protrayed in portaits of him", and also like his death mask (why that is lit from below in the photos is beyond my understanding). Of the new photo I am puzzled why the author says "… it’s very hard at first to see anything in the photograph …" and later states that it's hard to see the expression on his face. I do not find the damage that bad.

Also, I have discovered something very interesting in a book I am reading about Chopin (by Arthur Hedley) and he says (page 7) of Chopin's sister "Louise, the eldest, bore (as an old daguerreotype shows) an extraordinary resemblance to her brother ….". Apparently there is a photo of his sister out there, but as far as I can find, it is not anywhere Google can find it. If anyone finds such a photo I would love to see it.

Does anyone have any information on this 'new' photo? Has it been proved false?

Rich

Thanks for the link, NatB. I have seen the 'new' photo before but had forgotten about it; it almost more like a painting than a photo to me, but like you I have no problem seeing the facial expression, and agree that the resemblance to the familiar daguerreotype is striking and convincing.

That later picture is reproduced extremely clearly on the blog, and despite having known it for more than forty years (from the same Arthur Hedley book you are reading), it was the first time I had made out the detail of piano, score, bookcase and door; in fact I had always assumed that it was an outdoor photo up until now, and it is quite a shock to have to 'rethink' it.

As regards the death mask (and Chopin's hand), it is identical to one on display at the Royal Northern College of Music, where the lighting is not dissimilar. In 2010, when the complete works were performed over a weekend, the death mask was displayed in the reception area - busy and full of light during the day, but a 'dark and lonely place' after midnight... The porters' desk is opposite where the death mask was positioned and they couldn't wait for it to go back to its usual home - imagination in the small hours was working overtime!

Incidentally, there is an interesting article in Wikipedia about Chopin's illnesses besides TB - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chopin%27s_disease

Like you I was obsessed with Chopin's music from a very early age and never tire of it (or most of it). His early death prompts as many 'what if he had lived for another thirty years' thoughts as Schubert's or Mozart's - especially when one considers certain of his last, most innovative, works - the Polonaise-Fantaisie in particular.

The photo of Chopin's sister may be this one -

[NatBalance]

That later picture is reproduced extremely clearly on the blog, and despite having known it for more than forty years (from the same Arthur Hedley book you are reading), it was the first time I had made out the detail of piano, score, bookcase and door; in fact I had always assumed that it was an outdoor photo up until now, and it is quite a shock to have to 'rethink' it.

Yes it is a clear version. All they have done is lighten it. It's easily done in Photoshop or even cheaper software. You can see his upper legs aswell. I wonder if anyone knows where that photo was taken? Wouldn't it be fascinating if that room, that bookcase, that score, even that smart dinner jacket were all still in existence? Can't really make out the piano as a piano, it could be anything.

I like your story about the death mask. Yes, it must have been spooky, especially if lit from beneath like that. I thought you only lit the faces of monsters like that in horror movies.

Thanks for the link to his health issues. Interesting, and he possibly had nearly 50 physicians …. cripes! I wonder … perhaps 'too many cooks'?

Oh yes it is a wonderous thought to think what he would have written had he lived longer, as with many other composers. I totally agree about his Polonaise-Fantasie, they only played that recently on R3 and it reminded me what a fantastic piece that is (also how crap I was at playing it years ago when I attempted it). And if he had expanded on musical ideas such as that famous last movement of his 2nd Sonata:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcS32WnEFiI

How many composers in those days were composing 'effect' music?

I am pretty certain that the photo you show is George Sand.

[french frank]

Also, I have discovered something very interesting in a book I am reading about Chopin (by Arthur Hedley) and he says (page 7) of Chopin's sister "Louise, the eldest, bore (as an old daguerreotype shows) an extraordinary resemblance to her brother ….". Apparently there is a photo of his sister out there, but as far as I can find, it is not anywhere Google can find it. If anyone finds such a photo I would love to see it.

Could it be this one? (Ludwyka = Louise) (No time to investigate it atm.)

Damn - Pipped at post!!!

[NatBalance]

Well French it does say that it's Ludwyka Chopin but that photo is also down as being George Sand and to my eyes it looks more like George Sand than a sister of Chopin.

[french frank]

Well French it does say that it's Ludwyka Chopin but that photo is also down as being George Sand and to my eyes it looks more like George Sand than a sister of Chopin.

Yes - I ran it through Google Images and 'best guess' is George Sand .

[ahinton]

Oh yes it is a wonderous thought to think what he would have written had he lived longer, as with many other composers. I totally agree about his Polonaise-Fantasie, they only played that recently on R3 and it reminded me what a fantastic piece that is (also how crap I was at playing it years ago when I attempted it). And if he had expanded on musical ideas such as that famous last movement of his 2nd Sonata:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcS32WnEFiI

How many composers in those days were composing 'effect' music?

Different as they were in so many ways, there's perhaps rather more confluence between Chopin and Alkan than is generally appreciated and, of course, their friendship and mutual respect brought the work of each to the attention of the other. The B flat minor sonata was written a decade before his death and contains some real gems, although the later work seems to suggest a whole new flowering - the F minor Ballade, B minor sonata, Barcarolle and that Polonaise-Fantaisie, as well as the Op. 62 nocturnes, display an ever increasing concern for inner voices and more elaborate textgures, although it seems to me that the cello sonata, his lasst major work, takes none of these further, perhaps because Chopin was not quite so sure of himself in chamber music; given the lines on which he was developing in his last few years, I cannot help but suspect, however, that a second piano trio and possibly even a piano quintet might have emerged from his imagination had he survived for even a decade or two longer, let alone for as long as his colleagues and close contemporaries Alkan and Liszt.

[NatBalance]

I've had a listen to some Alkan. Exciting stuff, R3 needs to be encouraged to play more of his work I think. Here's one apparantly about the railroad, sounds similar to Chopin's 2nd Sonata last movement:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gdnzuEAQSM

Chopin still has that magic touch though, that warm 'haunting' quality.