Ludwika Jędrzejewicz (; Chopin; 6 April 1807 – 29 October 1855) was the elder sister of

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

composer

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...

. She was born in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, Poland, in 1807, the daughter of

Nicolas Chopin Nicolas Chopin (in pl, Mikołaj Chopin; 15 April 17713 May 1844) was a teacher of the French language in History of Poland (1795–1918), Partitioned Poland, and father of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin#Childhood, Frédéric Chopin.Łopaciń ...

and his wife Justyna. She was named after her godmother, Countess Ludwika Skarbek, after her parents had taken refuge with the Skarbeks from the unrest in

Żelazowa Wola Żelazowa Wola () is a village in Gmina Sochaczew, Sochaczew County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies on the Utrata River, some northeast of Sochaczew Sochaczew () is a town in central Poland, with 38,300 inhabitants (2 ...

. Walker (2018), p. 36.

Life

From a young age Ludwika showed talent for music and literature, and taught her brother Frédéric (born 1810) Polish and French. Like her brother, she studied music with

Wojciech Żywny , native_name_lang = , alias = , origin = Polish , birth_date = , birth_place = Mšeno, Bohemia , death_date = , death_place = Warsaw , genre = , occupatio ...

. In 1825 Frédéric wrote his friend and schoolmate Jan Białobłocki: "Ludwika has composed a perfect mazurek, of a kind that Warsaw has not yet danced to." Ludwika on many occasions worked closely with her younger sister Justyna Izabela. Both were members of the Polish Ladies Benevolent Society, a group formed to support those who were impoverished by tsarist repression. This group also sported an agenda to keep the spirit of passive resistance alive. Ludwika also was a co-writer on her sister's two-volume work for artisans, ''Mr. Wojciech: An Example of Work and Economy''. When her brother emigrated to Paris in 1830, they wrote one another extensively, and she visited him on one occasion. She married Kalasanty Jędrzejewicz on 22 November 1832. Later, when Frédéric's health had begun to deteriorate rapidly, he requested that Ludwika come and stay with him. She arrived in Paris on 8 August 1849 with her daughter and husband, lawyer Józef Jędrzejewicz, but her husband soon left. Ludwika was with Frédéric when he died on 17 October 1849. After Ludwika's second trip to Paris, her marriage with Jędrzejewicz began to deteriorate. Her husband accused her of putting her family before everything else, and for many years Jędrzejewicz treated Ludwika badly. This continued until Jędrzejewicz's death in 1853. After Frédéric's death, Ludwika, together with

Jane Stirling Jean ("Jane") Wilhelmina Stirling (15 July 1804 – 6 February 1859) was a Scottish amateur pianist who is best known as a student and later friend of Frédéric Chopin, who dedicated Nocturnes, Op. 55 to her. She took him on a tour of England a ...

Julian Fontana Julian (or Jules) Fontana (31 July 181023 December 1869) was a Polish pianist, composer, lawyer, author, translator, and entrepreneur, best remembered as a close friend and musical executor of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. Life Born in War ...

and

Camille Pleyel Joseph Étienne Camille Pleyel (December 18, 1788 – May 4, 1855) was a French virtuoso pianist, publisher, and owner of Pleyel et Cie. He also ran a concert hall, the Salle Pleyel, where Frédéric Chopin played the first and last of his ...

, began work on the posthumous edition of his works, as well as giving permission for the publication of his unpublished manuscripts. Ludwika died in her home in

during an 1855 epidemic of the

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pe ...

. Her story is mentioned in ''

Flights Flight is the process by which an object moves without direct support from a surface. Flight may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Flight'' (1929 film), an American adventure film * ''Flight'' (2009 film), a South Korean d ...

'', a novel by

Olga Tokarczuk Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk (; born 29 January 1962) is a Polish writer, activist, and public intellectual. She is one of the most critically acclaimed and successful authors of her generation in Poland; in 2019, she was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize ...

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jedrzejewicz, Ludwika Chopin family Musicians from Warsaw People from Warsaw Governorate 1855 deaths 1807 births 19th-century composers 19th-century Polish musicians Burials at Powązki Cemetery