Marie d'Agoult

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Marie d'Agoult, painting by Henri Lehmann

Marie Catherine Sophie de Flavigny , married Comtesse d'Agoult (born December 31, 1805 in Frankfurt am Main , † March 5, 1876 in Paris ), was known as a writer under the pseudonym Daniel Stern during her lifetime . Your story of the 1848 revolution is still considered the best that has been written about it. In the present, however, she is best known for her affair with Franz Liszt . Their daughter Cosima married Liszt's pupil, the pianist and later conductor Hans von Bülow , and finally the composer Richard Wagner .

Marie d'Agoult had relationships with many important personalities of the 19th century, disregarded the social constraints of her time and developed a critical attitude as a journalist despite her aristocratic origins. Today it can be seen as an early example of the emancipation of women.

Life

Marie de Flavigny was born in Frankfurt as the daughter of the emigrated French aristocrat Alexander Victor François de Flavigny (1770–1819) and his wife Maria Elisabeth Bethmann (1772–1847). The half-sister Auguste Bußmann , who was married to the poet Clemens Brentano from 1807 to 1814, came from the mother's first marriage to the banker Johann Jakob Bußmann, who died young .

Marie de Flavigny received her education in a French convent school, which was directed by the Dames du Sacré-Cœur in Paris. She married on May 16, 1827 Charles Louis Constant d'Agoult, Comte d'Agoult (1790-1875) and was thus Comtesse d'Agoult. The couple d'Agoult had two daughters, Louise, who died at the age of six (1828–1834), and Claire (1830–1912). In December 1832 she met the 21-year-old celebrated piano virtuoso Franz Liszt at a house concert of the Marquise Le Vayer in Paris and was fascinated by his personality. She became his lover. In June 1835 she left her husband and daughter and traveled to Basel, where Liszt was expecting her. From there they traveled through Switzerland and finally settled in Geneva. On December 18, 1835, she gave birth to a daughter, Blandine Liszt. A friendship began in Geneva with George Sand , who had been friends with Liszt before. However, the relationship between the two women became difficult over the years.

In October 1836 Marie returned to Paris with Liszt. There she founded a literary salon in which not only important writers, but also musicians, philosophers, historians, painters and politicians met. George Sand was also her guest for some time. She returned the favor with an invitation to her Nohant estate, where the couple spent three months. Frédéric Chopin dedicated his Etudes Op. 25, published in 1837, to Marie d'Agoult, which he composed between 1832 and 1836. It is reported that Marie had considerable piano skills.

In July 1837, the couple set out on a trip via Lyon and Geneva to Italy, where Marie got to know the important buildings and works of art, especially in Como, Milan, Venice, Florence and Rome. The gifted woman wrote travel reports and music reviews (some of them under Liszt's name) and developed her journalistic skills in the process.

While Liszt was expanding his enormous career as a piano virtuoso all over Europe, which was incompatible with a “normal” bourgeois life, Marie returned to Paris. In April 1844 she finally broke off relations with Liszt. Still there were other meetings.

She now saw her destiny in writing and chose the name Daniel Stern as a pseudonym after her son Daniel . In her newly founded salon in Paris, she gathered people who played a role or would later play a role not only in literature and art, but also in politics. It was becoming apparent that the times of monarchical rule in France were drawing to a close. Marie got to know some people who played a role in the run-up to the revolution of 1848. Her best-known work as a historian was based on this.

The meeting with Georg Herwegh , who moved into exile from Germany to Paris with his wife Emma and Arnold Ruge in 1843 , had a particular influence . Marie wrote two articles about Herwegh. Despite different political attitudes, the two probably got close personally, because Marie felt “free” after separating from Liszt.

Presumably through Emma Herwegh, Marie also got to know the freedom movement in Italy, which eventually led to the Risorgimento . She was in correspondence with Giuseppe Mazzini , whose letters were sometimes read aloud in her drawing room.

From the relationship with Liszt came two more children after Blandine: Cosima de Flavigny (born December 24, 1837) and Daniel Liszt, who died at the age of 20.

Blandine (1835-1862) later married the French statesman Émile Ollivier , Cosima was married to Hans von Bülow from 1857 and Richard Wagner from 1870 .

Liszt insisted that his children in Paris should not be raised by their mother, but by his mother. For a long time Marie was not allowed to have any contact with her children.

Marie d'Agoult describes her relationship with Liszt in her autobiographical novel Nélida , an anagram of her pseudonym Daniel (1846). Honoré de Balzac portrayed them, barely encrypted, in his novel Béatrix . He had received intimate information about Marie from George Sand, which led to a falling out between the two rival women. Marie saw herself assessed negatively and denounced.

Marie d'Agoult became an important writer on political liberalism in France. She viewed revolutions critically, as did the Catholic Church of that time. In her early years she adhered to royalism. She later turned Republican. However, their outlook remained idealistic. Educated, able people should serve society as a leader.

Marie d'Agoult wrote numerous newspaper articles on cultural and political topics, from December 12, 1841 under the name Daniel Stern . She traveled extensively in Europe and frequently changed homes.

She died in Paris on March 5, 1876 and was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery.

Marie d'Agoult, after a photograph by Adam-Salomon, 1861.

plant

First stories from 1845. Your best-known work, the history of the revolution of 1848 ( Histoire de la Révolution de 1848 ) appeared under the pseudonym Daniel Stern from 1851 to 1853 in three volumes. Other works are: Esquisses morales (1849), Trois journées de la vie de Marie Stuart (1856), Florence et Turin (1862), Histoire des commencements de la république aux Pays-Bas (1872) and Mes souvenirs (1877, published posthumously ). As a political writer, she wrote Lettres républicaines (1848) and Esquisses morales et politiques (1849, German 1862).

swell
  • Marcel Herwegh, Au Printemps des Dieux, correspondance inédite de la comtesse Marie d'Agoult et du poète Georges Herwegh , Paris, Gallimard, 1929.
  • Correspondence avec Liszt, ed. by D. Ollivier , 2 volumes, Paris 1933–1935.
  • Franz Liszt, letters to Marie Countess d'Agoult , edited by Daniel Ollivier, Fischer, Berlin 1933.
  • Mes souvenirs, 1806–1833 , Paris, Calmann Lévy, 1880. Texts en ligne sur Gallica.
  • Correspondance Franz Liszt avec Marie d'Agoult , eds. Serge Gut and Jacqueline Bellas, Fayard, Paris 2001. ISBN 2-213-61010-X .
  • Correspondance générale 1821-1836, Ed. Charles F. Dupêchez, Vol. 1, Champion, Paris 2003. ISBN 2-7453-0860-2 .
  • Correspondance générale, 1837 - octobre 1839 , Ed. Charles F. Dupêchez, Vol. 2, Champion, Paris 2004. ISBN 2-7453-0972-2 .
  • Correspondance générale, Novembre 1839-1841 , Ed. Charles F. Dupêchez, Vol. 3, Champion, Paris 2005. ISBN 2-7453-1081-X .
  • Correspondance générale, 1842 - may 1844 et suppléments 1830–1841 , Ed. Charles F. Dupêchez, Vol. 4, Champion, Paris 2012. ISBN 978-2-7453-2357-6 .
  • Correspondance Marie d'Agoult et George Sand , eds. Charles F. Dupêchez, Bartillat, Paris 1995. ISBN 2-84-100045-1 .

literature

  • Richard Bolster, Marie d'Agoult - The Rebel Countess. Yale University Press, New Haven, London 2000. ISBN 0-300-08246-0 .
  • Charles F. Dupêchez: Marie d'Agoult. 1805 - 1876. 2nd edition, Plon, Paris 1994. ISBN 2-259-00405-9 .
  • Claude Aragonnès, translated from French by Lotte Leber: Marie d'Agoult - romance, love and passion for the young Liszt . Franckh, Stuttgart 1946.
  • Gertrud Bäumer , d'Agoult, Comtesse Marie: Histoire de revolution de 1848. 1851-1853 .
  • Robert Bory, Une retraite romantique en Suisse: Liszt et la comtesse d'Agoult , Lausanne, Éditions SPES, 1930, German 1935.
  • Wilibald Gurlitt , Carl Dahlhaus (editor): Riemann Musik-Lexikon. In three volumes and two supplementary volumes. Liszt, Franz. 12th completely revised edition. 2. Person part L – ZB Schotts-Söhne, Mainz 1959, p. 80 f . (First edition: 1882). One of the topics discussed here is a. Listz's “free association” with “Comtesse Marie Cathérine Sophie d'Agoult”, from which three children emerged.
  • Wilibald Gurlitt , Carl Dahlhaus (editor): Riemann Musik-Lexikon. In three volumes and two supplementary volumes. d'Agoult, Marie Cathérine Sophie. 12th completely revised edition. 4. Supplementary volume, personal section A – KB Schotts-Söhne, Mainz 1972, p. 8 (first edition: 1882). with reference to the article "Liszt, Franz von" in Volume 5.
  • Wilibald Gurlitt , Carl Dahlhaus (editor): Riemann Musik-Lexikon. In three volumes and two supplementary volumes. Liszt, Franz von. 12th completely revised edition. 5. Supplementary volume, personal section L – ZB Schotts-Söhne, Mainz 1972, p. 67 (first edition: 1882). Here is a detailed biography of Liszt's partner "Comtesse Marie Cathérine Sophie d'Agoult"

Web links

Commons : Marie d'Agoult  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Marie d'Agoult  - Sources and full texts (French)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bolster: Marie d'Agoult - The Rebel Countess. P. 225.
  2. ^ Dupêchez: Marie d'Agoult. 1805-1876. P. 342.
  3. ↑ Bolster: Marie d'Agoult - The Rebel Countess. P. 69.
  4. ↑ FR 36400 Nohant-Vic, the house can be visited. [1]
  5. ↑ Bolster: Marie d'Agoult - The Rebel Countess. P. 58ff.
  6. ^ Bolster: Marie d'Agoult - The Rebel Countess, p. 193.
  7. ↑ Marcel Herwegh: Au Printemps des Dieux, correspondance inédite de la comtesse Marie d'Agoult et du poète Georges Herwegh , p. 48, Gallimard, Paris 1929.
personal data
SURNAME Agoult, Marie d '
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Flavigny, Marie Cathérine Sophie de (maiden name); Flavigny, Marie Catharina Sophia Vicomtesse de (birth name after Riemann 1972); Stern, Daniel (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French nobleman and writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1805
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH March 5, 1876
Place of death Paris