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The relationship between the composer Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin<\/a> and the writer George Sand has always provoked curiosity. When she first met him, in 1836, her novels were attracting notoriety for their advanced social ideas, particularly on the emancipation of women. She wore men\u2019s clothing and smoked cigars \u2013 outward symbols of equality.<\/strong><\/p> Some biographers have seen George Sand as a wholly negative influence on Chopin. But she gave him exactly the right domestic environment in which to compose and she cared for him at a time when his terminal illness had already begun to eat away his lungs. <\/p> When Sand planned their madcap adventure to Mallorca in the winter of 1838-39, she thought only to escape the rigours of the Paris climate and expose Chopin to some warm Mediterranean sunshine. She knew very little about the island, its inhabitants, its climate, but its mystery was all part of its appeal. <\/p> Chopin\u2019s first sight of the island enchanted him. \u2018The sky is like turquoise\u2019, he wrote, \u2018the sea is like emeralds, the air as in Heaven.\u2019 The pair found accommodation in a deserted monastery in Valldemosa; part of the monastery is now a Chopin museum, and you can still see his Pleyel piano (shipped out from Paris) and some of his manuscripts. <\/p> Chopin completed his 24 Preludes, Op. 28 at Valldemosa, although not without difficulty. Paradise had meanwhile turned into purgatory: the damp winter weather had set in. <\/p>A madcap adventure<\/h2><\/div><\/div>
‘The sky is like turquoise, the air as in Heaven\u2019 <\/h2>