Sand2023

Indeed, her experiences informed many of her most famous literary works, such as Indiana , Lélia, and La Mare au Diable , and provided ample fodder to fill her five-volume autobiography, Histoire de ma vie . Sand’s output is staggering—she wrote seventy novels in addition to numerous novellas, plays, criticism, and travel journals—testifying to her prodigious energy as well as her popularity. She was a friend to almost every important artistic and cultural figure of her day, including Balzac, Liszt, Delacroix, Flaubert, and Saint-Beuve, and a lover to Chopin, Musset, and the stage actress Marie Dorval. In an era when women had very little agency, she possessed remarkable independence and freedom. She actively engaged with current events, lobbying Emperor Louis-Napoléon for leniency toward imprisoned rebels following the 1848 Revolution, though she was fiercely critical of the Commune in 1871, having witnessed too much violence and bloodshed in the streets. Sand’s political pragmatism extended to her personal style, as well, as she donned men’s clothing when riding horses or attending the theater, flouting French sumptuary laws. Most remarkable of all, she obtained a divorce from her husband, Casimir Dudevant, and won a series of legal battles to gain financial autonomy as well as custody of her two children, Maurice and Solange. Though she struggled at times, Sand was able to support her family through her work as a successful novelist. And yet, for all

opposite: Variation on the Theme of Birds, Three Waders (cat. no. 2)