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LUDWIKA MARIANNA, Fryderyk's eldest sister, daughter of Mikołaj Chopin and Justyna Krzyżanowska, was born on 6th April 1807 in Warsaw.Ludwika began her education at a girls‘ boarding school. From her early years Ludwika showed a versatile artistic talent for music and literature. Like Fryderyk she studied music and composed with Wojciech Żywny. From all Chopin children she was closest with Fryderyk, becoming his confidant and protector for life. As a child, she taught Fryderyk to read and write in Polish and French, and piano playing.Fryderyck Chopins calligraphy book Pimp My ProfileFryderyk's precocious musical genius can be attributed to Ludwika's influence. She also wrote several other mazurkas. Unfortunately, her compositions did not survive *like in the case of Fanny Mendelssohnn the other most famous sister in the History of music-. It might have been through her influence that Chopin took up an interest in the mazurka. Pimp My ProfileLudwika was an active participant in the cultural and intellectual life of Warsaw. She was a frequent guest at the Monday receptions of Nina Łuszczewska and the Friday parties at Katarzyna Lewocka, and befriended writer Eleonora Ziemięcka.Nina Łuszczewska and Eleonora Ziemięcka Pimp My Profile*During Enlightenment and also XIX century these kind of receptions about literature and other cultural topics at some wealthy and cultured women' salons were the perfect place where some women could participate of the public sphere expressing their opinions and preferences at the same level of men.Unfortunatelly women who could participate in these elitist receptions were very few, so Ludwika's case is exceptional, in XIX the majority of women were closed in the private sphere, in the isolation of their own houses with an only objective to be a good mother and a good wife. The role of women who participated in these salons should be revindicate as one of the ways women conquered a place in a masculine world like literature.- *Although we should not speak about a George Sand, Ludwika's interest in writing is unussual in women, Ludwika preferred her own writings gradually to follow a educational character, indeed her father Mikołaj Chopin dedicated his whole life to teaching as well as Fryderyck whose teaching piano playing facet is very unknown and her sister Izabella wrote part of a Ludwika's work and married a teacher... -Izabella Chopin- Barcińska and Emilia Chopin Pimp My ProfilePimp My ProfileIn her writings Ludwika endeavoured to show examples of fruitful life and hard work. Together with her sister (probably Emilia), she published an educational children's novel Ludwik i Emilka (1828), and many smaller pieces in the Warsaw press. With her sister Izabella, she wrote a two-volume book for artisans titled Pan Wojciech, czyli wzór pracy i oszczędności [Mr. Wojciech, An Example of Work and Economy], which had no less than five editions (Warsaw 1836, 1843, 1848, 1858 and 1864). Also of popular character were the Wiadomości krótkie z nauk przyrodzonych i niektóre najważniejsze wynalazki [Short news from natural sciences, and some principal inventions] (Warsaw 1848), written “for the people and elementary schools" (some researchers attribute this work to Ludwika's husband). She also published a leaflet O pisaniu dzienników [On the writing of diaries] (in the New Year publication “Pierwiosnek" 1838), and translated the life of St. Veronica for use in the church. *Two of Ludwikas works can be found today at the National Library of Warsaw (Biblioteka Narodowa).LUDWIKAS WORKS AT THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WARSAW Pimp My ProfilePimp My ProfileLudwika was Raised in the spirit of Polish patriotism, after the fall of the November 1831 Uprising against the Russian empire she was accepted as a ‘comrade' of the Polish Ladies Patriotic Charity Union (also called the Warsaw Ladies Committee), which under the direction of Klementyna Tańska-Hofman, and later Katarzyna Sowińska (widow of general Sowiński), offered financial support to victims of tsarist repressions. From 1848 Ludwika also worked in the Warsaw Charity Society, becoming a patron in the Department of Orphans and Poor Children in 1849.Brochów Pimp My ProfilePimp My ProfileOn 22nd November 1832 at the church of St. John the Baptist and St. Roch in Brochów, Ludwika married lawyer Józef Kalasanty Jędrzejewicz (1803-1853). Letter by Frederick Chopin from Chaillot to Ludwika, 25 June, 1849 Pimp My ProfileLudwika's extensive correspondence with her brother Fryderyk and his emigration entourage provides a rich material for biographical studies of the composer. She not only took care of her ill-healthed brother, but also managed his material and artistic estate. Between 1844 and 1849 she exchanged letters with George Sand. Information gathered from Fryderyk's two sisters, Ludwika and Izabella, served as a basis for Maurycy Karasowski's article on Chopin's youth (Biblioteka Warszawska 1862).George Sand and Nohant Pimp My ProfileLudwika visited her brother in Paris twice. In July 1844, after the death of Mikołaj Chopin, she came to Paris with her husband, also visiting Nohant on the way where she met George Sand. Her second visit came at Fryderyk's direct request when his health was rapidly deteriorating; she arrived to Paris on 8th August 1849 with her daughter Ludwika Magdalena and her husband, they later soon returning to Warsaw.Painting by T. Kwiatkowski Pimp My ProfilePimp My ProfileShe was at Chopin's deathbed on 17th October 1849 and stayed in Paris until December that year. On 30th November she participated in the auctioning of Chopin's estate. She offered some manuscripts to Chopin's friends, but brought Chopin's heart, a number of memorabilia, including the correspondence with George Sand, and presumably a lock of Chopin's hair secretly to Warsaw (7th-8th January 1850)Pimp My Profile*Chopin's heart was deposed at the Church of the Holly Cross- and he letters were deposed with a friend in Mysłowice in fear of border controls, but were later ‘borrowed' by Alexandre Dumas Jr., who in turn gave them to George Sand. Sand burned all these letters.Jane Stirling Pimp My ProfilePimp My ProfileLudwika borrowed 5,000 francs from Jane Stirling and her sister for Chopin's funeral. Stirling also presented Ludwika with Chopin's last piano, which is now kept at the Chopin Museum in Warsaw.Chopins last piano Pimp My Profile Pimp My ProfileAfter Fryderyk's death Ludwika corresponded with Jane Stirling and also Julian Fontana and Camille Pleyel on the posthumous edition of his works and the tomb monument at Père-Lachaise. Pimp My ProfilePimp My ProfileIn 1853, together with her mother and sister Izabella, Ludwika signed an authorisation for Fontana to prepare the manuscripts of unpublished Chopin works for publication *like his 19 Polish songs for voice and piano-.Julian Fontana Pimp My ProfilePimp My ProfileFrom Ludwika's second trip to Paris onwards her marriage with Jędrzejewicz deteriorated. The conflict arose from Jędrzejewicz's unmasked animosity towards the Chopin family and his jealousy of Ludwika, whom he reproached of putting her family's affairs above all else. For many years Jędrzejewicz mistreated his wife, spread unfavourable gossip about Fryderyk, and showed anomisity towards his parents-in-law. Despite Ludwika's attempts at reconciliation, the conflict continued until Jędrzejewicz's death in 1853, seriously affecting Ludwika's health.* A Ludwika..s thirty two page-long letter to his husband dated at Warsaw, after September 1952, starts with the words: "I offended you involuntarily and three years of most avid suffering and tears were unable to placate you..."-Ludwikas thirty two page-long letter to his husband dated at Warsaw, after September 1952 Pimp My ProfilePimp My ProfileAfter her husband's death Ludwika received a pension of 72 silver rubels, but her health deteriorated and she died of a plague epidemic in Warsaw on 29th October 1855 in her house at 526 Podwale St. She was buried in the Jędrzejewicz family tomb at the Powązki cemetery in Warsaw, alonside her sister Emilia.Powązki graveyard in Warsaw Pimp My Profile Pimp My ProfileLudwika's death was widely reported in the press, where several commemorative articles were published. Fryderyk's publishing affairs were taken over by sister Izabella.Pimp My ProfileFrom her marriage with Józef Kalasanty Jędrzejewicz, Ludwika had four children: Henryk Bronisław, lieutenant-colonel in the January 1863 Uprising (1833 Warsaw-1899 Paris), Ludwika Magdalena (1835 Warsaw-1890 Warsaw), who married estate owner Ludwik Ciechomski (ca. 1827-1882), Fryderyk Bolesław (1840 Warsaw-1857 Warsaw) and Antoni Żelisław, clerk at the Warsaw Municipality Building Society (1843 Warsaw-1922 Warsaw), *who in 1899 signed with his name in the Visitors' Book of Chopin's birthplace in Zelazowa Wola.Pimp My Profile(Article by Piotr Mysłakowski and Andrzej Sikorski,*A. Stirling) Article from Institut Chopin website.