Why did Chopin and Sand break up?

[wanderer]

I watched a couple of films about Chopin and each of them told a different story. Was it because of Sand's children or Sand herself?

[enchantedpianist]

I'm not quite sure. Some say that Sand is tired of the sick Chopin and wants to get rid of him. Others say that Sand's daughter Maurice is envious of Sand's love for Chopin.

Does anyone have other thoughts?

[MorrisseyMan]

I read a biography and I think it was both, actually. Chopin was a very submissive person, and I think Sand just had enough of being a mother figure. I also think that the daughter had a bit to do with it.

[Pianoman1992]

You're absolutely right! I think that the feud kicked into high gear when Chopin wasn't invited to Maurice's (George's son) wedding. George also thought that Chopin was in love with Solange (her daughter), who she despised. Although they both had something to do with the break-up, I still like to think that it was more of George's fault since she was much more aggressive.

[Tmoica]

In one biography I read, the author says that the major problem in their relationship was the difference between Chopin`s ingenious and Sand`s talent. Chopin is one of the artists who make eternal and indelible influence on art form that they belong to. His work is revolutinary and made unimaginable impact on music, both as a form and a way of expression. Sand is an artist who was talented but an ordinary talented artist in one way. Talented artists are exceptional and amazing, they really are, but there is pretty a lot of them in every generation, compared to the number of ingenious artists like Chopin. Chopin`s work is far more exceptional than Sand`s. Chopin is one of the best composers of all time and one of the best artists of music of all time. Chopin belongs to those artists who don`t appear in one generation but who appear as one in several generations. He really was a genious and that is something what Sand couldn`t understand and something what was too big for her.

The time Sand spent to look after Chopin when he was ill was a great obstacle for her, not only because she thought she can use that time for writting but also because Chopin`s was very sensitive and she was being irritated by it. She wrote he was seing something like images of people he loved, like he was losing touch with reality when he felt very sick. I`m not really sure how to express what I want to say, forgive me, but I think You got it.

There is one thing, for me very interesting thing, that she wrote about in one of her books. Chopin had difficult physical illness but what really put him down to the bottom was sadness he could recognize in nature, very often, smallest signs of melancholy. His heart was broken when he would hear laments in bird`s voice, for example. The smallest melancholic occurrence and sounds in nature could make him feel deeply sad and could inspire him to compose affecting and sorrow pieces full of grief. That`s one of the things that make him a genious.

Chopin did have some issues and sharp disagreements with Sand`s children and people close to Sand. That also irritated Sand and she found it hard to ignore. In that book I read (well, didn`t find time to read the whole book yet, but I did read the parts when Sand talks about Chopin), she wrote Chopin was too edgy (I think that is the right word, not sure, but I think this time u can also realize what I want to say) and it was also hard to ignore it for people close to Sand and she started to feel Chopin brought unrest to her place.

As time passed, Chopin also started to move away from Sand`s friends. The conversations and discussions of Sand`s companion weren`t interesting for Chopin anymore. On the contrary, he felt those conversations and discussions were repellent.

And one day it ended. Sand doesn`t give a clear description of that end in that book. She just wrote Maurice was playing and Chopin distrupted him and finally stopped him playing. Maurice complained and Sand reasonably took Maurice`s side and told to Chopin he was not right. After that, Chopin told her she doesn`t love him anymore. That was the end. 

In the Sand`s book I read and biographies I read I didn`t find any issue with Maurice`s weeding. I`would be happy if You give me detailed description if You know it and if it doesn`t take too much time. Thank You!

In one biography I read Sand was very harsh on Chopin after the end of their relationship. She shifted all blaim on Chopin and was talking very bad about him to friends.

I really apologize for bad English.

[URTEXT]

I read Gastone Belotti's "Chopin". It says that:
1) In 1846 Sand wrote "Lucrezia Floriani":the story is similar to Chopin's and Sand's life, but it's more exaggerated: The protagonist is not like George, but is how she had wanted to be; the antagonist is a Chopin with the negative sides enourmously amplified and the positive ones attenuated. Chopin's friends, when they read it, recognised this similarity, but Chopin didnt take care. However, Sand said it wasn't the same story. This would make us thinking she premedited the actions, but it's not true. She lost the love (not the affection) and any sort of comprehension towards Chopin.
2) Maurice began to dislike Chopin, now seen as a stranger
3) Sand and Solange knew Clesinger, the sculptor. He was said to be a vulgar man, dishonest, etc.. and Solange fell in love with him, then they wanted to marry (Clesinger knew Sand was rich and maybe for this reason he wanted to marry Solange): Solange refused to sign the "marriage" between herself and her previous "lover", de Prelaux. At first George Sand, worried about what people would have said or think about her (she was divorced, with the responsability of two sons), didn't want Solange and Clesinger to marry, but eventually she accepted, the decision of the 2 lovers prevailed to Sand's one, but <<Not a word to Chopin>> (this because Chopin form the first time was contrary to their marriage). They married the 19th of May, and went in Paris for 1 month.
4) In the meanwhile Augustine, Solange's cousin, fell in love with a painter, Rousseau, and decided to marry. But some anonymous letters Rousseaus received said that Augustine was secretly engaged with Maurice: then Rousseau broke with Sand and Augustine and didnt want to marry. We know that the letters were written and sent (directly or indirectly) by Solange and Clesinger, that hated Augustine.
5)Sand realised the true nature of Clesinger (she found out he was a liar and a dishonest): he and Solange were spending much more money than they earnt and Sand went to know the enourmous debts of Clesinger. He and Solange however didnt hear her advices. They returned to Nohant with an objective: they wanted a piece of Sand's mansion in Nohant, but she refused it. Then they wanted to open a mortgage to the house, but she again refused, Then they began to vociferate (previously only by anonymous letters, now in an opened way) that she wanted the house undivided for Maurice and his lover, Augustine. Then the 11th of July Maurice got angry with Clesinger: the sculptor wanted to break Maurice's head with a hammer; G.Sand got a punch in the stomach while Maurice, with a pistol, was trying to shoot and kill Clesinger, but he was prevented by some people. G.Sand threw out Solange and Clesinger form her house.
6)Solange, in need of a coach (G.Sand denied her Chopin's one) wrote a letter in which she says that she is ill and needs a coach, and her mother denied it. Chopin, not knowing a thing about what happened while he was away, was worried and wrote a letter to G.Sand asking the permission of use of the coach by Solange. G.Sand too worte a letter to him in which she tell a little part of the story, but Solange's letter arrived sooner (and for this reason Chopin knew only her version, that she was ill and she has argued with her mother). Then , when Sand received Chopins' letter, soon she got angry with him because she thought he "passed with the enemy side". But he didnt know anything, he only asked the permission for the coach, like he always had done before. But Sand was very angry, and in a letter to Chopin she wrote terrible words, expressing all her detestation for Solange, Clesinger, and Chopin himself.
7) Chopin astonished for that letter, wrote back saying that he was not "updated" with the situations for months. And that he never took part, neither to advantage Solange, nor to advantage Maurice.  But for her, there was only 1 Truth: hers.
G.Sand replied in a glacial manner, and Chopin, for dignity, abandoned the problem because he never would have won the case.
However, G.Sand remained astonished when some of the friends she had in common with Chopin began to avoid her: Delacroix, for ex., form that moment no more has put a foot in her residence in Nohant, even after her thousands invitations.
THAT WAS THE END.
----They met only once after, when Chopin was exiting the Ville L'Eveque, while she was entering. No more.-----
Solange, after decads from the death of Chopin, still remained grateful to the composer.
Clesinger, made the famous right hand of Chopin in bronze, and the funerary monument at the grave in Pere Lachaise, Paris.