Jane Stirling
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Jean ("Jane") Wilhelmina Stirling was a Scottish amateur pianist who is best known as a student and later friend of Frédéric Chopin, who dedicated Nocturnes, Op. 55 to her. She took him on a tour of England and Scotland in 1848, and took charge of the disposal of his effects and manuscripts after his death in 1849.
Portrait of Jane Stirling by Achille Devéria
Portrait of Jane Stirling with her father, John Stirling of Kippendavie, by Henry Raeburn. Collection of Fyvie Castle.
Brass plaque to the Stirlings of Kippendavie, Dunblane Cathedral
Chopin on His Deathbed, by Teofil Kwiatkowski, 1849, commissioned by Jane Stirling. Chopin sits in bed, in the presence of (from left) Aleksander Jełowicki, Chopin's sister Ludwika Jędrzejewicz, Marcelina Czartoryska, Wojciech Grzymała, and Kwiatkowski himself.
Frédéric Chopin
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Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading musician of his era, one whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation".
Daguerreotype, c. 1849
Chopin's birthplace in Żelazowa Wola
Chopin's father, Nicolas Chopin, by Mieroszewski, 1829
Chopin plays for the Radziwiłłs, 1829 (painting by Henryk Siemiradzki, 1887)