Chevalier de Saint-George is best known as a virtuoso violinist and composer; yet he was also a peerless fencer, as well as a dancer and an ice skater. Naturally, this man of exceptional physical and intellectual gifts also had an extraordinary background — one that gave him a foot in the door for much of his life, but ultimately shut it in his face.
The Caribbean origins of Chevalier de Saint-George
Joseph Bologne de Saint-George, better known as Chevalier de Saint-George, was born in 1745 in Baillif, near Basse-Terre, a town on the island of Guadeloupe, then a French colony. His father, George Bologne, was a wealthy plantation owner descended from a Dutch family; and his mother, Nanon, was a black woman George held in slavery.
Historian Frédéric Régent deduced Saint-George’s date of birth in an interview with Cécile Baquey, “He was most likely born at the end of 1745. We know this from a date of birth mentioned in documents. He also appears in a passenger register together with his father and his mother — a passenger register of 1747 in which he is recorded as being two years old.”
Régent, a specialist in slavery under the Ancien Régime, explained: “Enslaved people were recorded in the parish registers. The only problem is that most of the parish registers of the period, those concerning the enslaved, have been destroyed.”
A refined education for a peerless swordsman
To escape prosecution for his cousin’s death by duel, George Bologne fled Guadeloupe and settled in Paris with his son. He acknowledged Joseph as his own in 1748 — granting him the family name — and provided an aristocratic education for the boy.
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It was unusual for a black man to share the privileges of eighteenth-century nobility, but young Joseph Bologne took up the sword very early, a discipline reserved by its very nature for the aristocracy.
Placed in the care of fencing master Nicolas Benjamin Texier de La Boëssière at the age of 13, Chevalier de Saint-George revealed remarkable aptitude for fencing. He formed a friendship with the master’s son, Antoine de La Boëssière, and became a fencer of genius.
La Boëssière wrote of Saint-George, “His mornings were given over to his education, and the rest of the day was spent in the fencing hall. At fifteen, his progress had been so rapid that he was beating the strongest fencers. At seventeen, he had acquired the greatest speed. In time, he added to his swift execution a body of knowledge that made him inimitable.”
Europe’s greatest swordsmen measured themselves against Saint-George. Picard, an eminent fencing master from Rouen, promised that he would defeat “the upstart mulatto of La Boëssière.” According to Alain Guédé’s biography of him, “We know that Saint-George thrashed him and that Picard afterwards apologized.”
Two duels caused a great sensation — one pitted the Caribbean-born chevalier against chevalier d’Éon, a spy who often appeared in women’s dress, and the other against Italy’s greatest fencer, Gian Faldoni. Although Saint-George did not win this bout, Faldoni acknowledged him as the finest swordsman in Europe.
A virtuoso musician admired at court
Music formed part of the aristocratic training that George Bologne intended for his son. The violinist Jean-Marie Leclair, as well as the composer François-Joseph Gossec, devoted themselves to the musical education of Chevalier de Saint-George, and his extraordinary gifts revealed themselves very early.
In recognition of his talent, George Bologne purchased the office of “Gentleman of the King’s Chamber” for Joseph In 1757, enhancing his status as a musician.
In 1769, Gossec, the founder of the Concert des Amateurs, named him first violin and then conductor. His contribution made the symphony orchestra one of the finest in Paris — perhaps in all of Europe.
He began composing in 1774, and, according to the historian Alain Guédé cited above, produced more than 200 works — including sonatas, symphonies and concertos. Unfortunately, most of these works of undoubted quality have been lost.
None of these accomplishments escaped the notice of the court — Chevalier de Saint-George was held in particular esteem by Queen Marie-Antoinette and King Louis XVI, and he passed for a favorite musician at the Palace of Versailles. A charismatic figure of many talents, he would be regarded as a “star” by today’s standards. It was even whispered that the chevalier had become the queen’s harpsichord teacher.
A figure who fascinated and unsettled
Chevalier de Saint-George was a man whom the courts of Europe were clamoring for, and the young queen nominated him as director of the Paris Opéra.
This proposal set off an outcry without precedent. Two sopranos and a dancer petitioned the queen, expressing that “their honor and the delicacy of their conscience would never permit them to submit to the orders of a mulatto.” The queen had to abandon the idea, and Saint-George was never appointed director of the Opéra.
The episode threw into relief the ambiguity of Joseph Bologne’s position. He became conscious of the limits and contradictions of his social status: ennobled and freed, adulated and despised by turns, he struggled to find his place in a hierarchical society in which the prejudice of color prevailed.
Friend of the Revolution and the first Black colonel
Won over by the ideas of a revolution that promised equality and fraternity, Saint-George enlisted alongside a number of freedmen and men of mixed race like himself, among them the father of French author Alexandre Dumas. Distinguishing himself once again, Chevalier de Saint-George became the first Black colonel in the French army.
The same aristocratic blood that gave him opportunities to shine in music and fencing, was a distinct disadvantage during the revolutionary period. The capable colonel was stripped of his command and imprisoned due to political suspicion. Although he was eventually released, his post was lost, and his musical career also faltered. In 1799, the brilliant Joseph Bologne succumbed to illness and died in Paris, practically destitute.
While the nineteenth and twentieth centuries all but erased his works — and even his memory — the qualities of this great musician have recently begun to emerge from the shadows. Biographies, films, plays and festivals devoted to his compositions pay tribute to an exceptional human being. Streets and schools now bear his name: Chevalier de Saint-George.
Translated from French: Qui était le chevalier de Saint-George, musicien virtuose du Siècle des Lumières ? – Vision Times by Marlène Deloumeaux
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