Ludwika Jędrzejewicz

Ludwika Jędrzejewicz (Polish: [ludˈvika jɛndʐɛˈjɛvitʂ]; née Chopin; 6 April 1807 – 29 October 1855) was the elder sister of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. Ludwika was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1807, the daughter of Nicolas Chopin and his wife Justyna.

Photo of portrait of Ludwika Chopin by Ambroży Mieroszewski. The original was destroyed in Warsaw in World War II.

From a young age, she showed talent for music and literature. Like her brother Frédéric (b. 1810), she studied music with Wojciech Żywny.[1] In 1825 Frédéric wrote to his friend and schoolmate Jan Białobłocki "Ludwika has composed a perfect mazurek, of a kind that Warsaw has not yet danced to."[1]

When her brother emigrated to Paris in 1830, they wrote one another extensively, and she visited him on one occasion. Later, when Frédéric's health had begun to deteriorate rapidly, he requested that Ludwika come and stay with him. She arrived in Paris on 8 August 1849 with her daughter and husband, lawyer Józef Jędrzejewicz, but her husband soon left. Ludwika was with Frédéric when he died on 17 October 1849.[2]

After Ludwika's second trip to Paris, her marriage with Jędrzejewicz began to deteriorate. Her husband accused her of putting her family before everything else, and for many years Jędrzejewicz treated Ludwika badly. This continued until Jędrzejewicz's death in 1853.[1]

Ludwika died in her home in Warsaw during an 1855 epidemic of the plague.

Her story is mentioned in Flights, a novel by Olga Tokarczuk.