This portrait shows de Musset in 1854, three years before his death. Although, technically, I think this painting is a copy, in 1878, by Charles Landelle, of painting he saw somewhere else. De Musset spent much of his time writing, drinking and cruising brothels. Possibly, he beat up Céleste de

This painting by Eugène Delacroix from 1838 doesn't exist as such. It was originally intended as a double portrait of Chopin and Sand, but it was unfinished and, after Delacroix's death, it was cut in half and the two portraits were cropped - especially Chopin -

Some favorites of mine. Below is Friedrich Nerly's Piazzetta di San Marco bei Mondschein (aka A moonlight view of the Piazza San Marco towards San Giorgio Maggiore) from 1849. He died in Venice and is buried in San Michele Cemetery; his paintings are on display in his home

This photo of Sand was taken in 1864 (when she was 60 years old). She outlived them all, except Liszt, and died at 71 in 1876. Below is a portrait of Sand by Achille Lemot from 1870.

Based on his encounter with the tragic courtesan Marie Duplessis, Alexandre Dumas fils writes La Dame aux camélias with such emotion that one almost believes he was in love with her. Yet it is also another of those novels where the heroine goes down to defeat and George Sand ponders

The only known photograph of Chopin, taken in 1849 by Louis-Auguste Bisson. There are differing views on what disease finally killed Chopin. Was it the tuberculosis or was it something else? One recent theory suggests it was cystic fibrosis or pericarditis, aggravated by chronic TB. During his last years, Chopin

Some families are snake-bitten – they feud constantly. That was certainly the case with George Sand, her son Maurice and daughter Solange, and her soon-to-be-ex-lover Chopin, and it sucked in visiting friends like Delacroix. The most notable crisis was in May of 1847 when Solange married Auguste Clésinger, a sculptor and