Joseph Boulogne
Joseph Boulogne, known as the "Chevalier de Saint-Georges," was a remarkable figure in 18th century France, celebrated for his contributions to both music and fencing. Born in Guadeloupe to a Senegalese enslaved woman and a plantation owner, Boulogne's early life was marked by his unique heritage and his father's efforts to provide him with opportunities rare for people of color at the time. He became a renowned swordsman and later a distinguished musician, mastering the violin and composition under the tutelage of notable instructors like Jean-Marie Leclair.
Boulogne conducted prominent orchestras, including the Concert des Amateurs and the Concert de la Loge Olympique, and his works were featured alongside those of composers like Mozart and Haydn. His social charm and aristocratic connections allowed him to navigate the elite circles of Paris, where he was both celebrated and subjected to racial prejudice. Despite achieving significant status, Boulogne faced discrimination that ultimately impacted his career aspirations, including a failed bid for the directorship of the Paris Opera.
During the French Revolution, he aligned with republican ideals, serving as an officer and later a colonel of the National Legion of the South, which included free people of color. Boulogne's life, marked by both triumph and adversity, highlights the complexities of racial identity in Enlightenment-era France, and he is remembered as an influential pioneer in music and a figure of resilience against the societal constraints of his time.
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Subject Terms
Joseph Boulogne
Caribbean-born composer and revolutionary commander
- Born: c. 1739
- Birthplace: Basse Terre, Guadeloupe
- Died: June 9, or 10, 1799
- Place of death: Paris, France
A product of French and African parents, Boulogne overcame racial challenges to become a master swordsman and prominent musician in France, as well as one of the most celebrated personalities of the Enlightenment era.
Early Life
Joseph Boulogne (zhoh-zehf bew-lohn-yuh) was born in the Basse-Terre region of Guadeloupe to a beautiful Senegalese slave woman and an aristocratic plantation owner. His paternity within the extensive Boulogne family is also disputed, but it seems most likely that his father was the planter Guillaume-Pierre Tavernier de Boulogne, who had properties in the French colonies of Guadeloupe and Saint-Domingue.
Joseph’s earliest childhood was spent in both these colonies, but in 1748, with his mother, Nanon, in tow, Joseph accompanied his father to Bordeaux and then to Paris, where he began a life and career that vaulted him to the highest levels of French society. As occasionally happened even within the oppressive slave systems of the Caribbean, Joseph’s father was fond of his son and undertook to secure for him privileges that were rare for people of color in eighteenth century France.
At age thirteen, Joseph became a boarding student with the Parisian fencing master Nicolas Texier de La Böessière, and in a few years his form and athleticism had earned him plaudits as France’s premier swordsman. For the next several decades, he maintained this reputation, giving exhibitions of his dazzling technique and often defending himself against those who doubted his prowess with the foil. He also regaled audiences with his displays of dancing, swimming, skating, riding, and pistol marksmanship. He became a knight of the king’s Royal Guard, earning the title chevalier de Saint-Georges, and his mastery of arms earned him a teaching position at the Royal Academy.
Boulogne’s musical potential had been recognized during his childhood in the Caribbean, when he had received fiddle lessons from the plantation steward. Later, in France, his father arranged for him to study with Jean-Marie Leclair, the doyen of French violinists. He also began a long association with the most influential French musician of the era, François-Joseph Gossec, who seems to have cultivated Boulogne’s interest in composition.
Life’s Work
The irrepressible Joseph Boulogne was soon a master musician, violin virtuoso, composer, and conductor of two of France’s leading orchestras. In 1769, he was awarded the position of first violin and ensemble timekeeper with the Concert des Amateurs, a symphonic orchestra comprising more than seventy amateur and professional performers; after Boulogne was appointed its conductor (1773-1781), it became one of the premier ensembles in Europe. Following this, he conducted a new orchestra founded by the Freemasons, Le Concert de la Loge Olympique, and often performed at the Royal Palace.
Boulogne’s own concerti, quartets, and operas were played and admired throughout Europe on programs that also included selections by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn. Though Mozart was in Paris during the peak of Boulogne’s celebrity, there is no evidence that the two ever met. Mozart was certainly aware, however, of the musical innovations being advanced by Boulogne and other French musicians. In 1786, Boulogne visited Haydn in Vienna to commission six “Parisian” symphonies, which were premiered by Le Concert de la Loge Olympique. Boulogne and Gossec pioneered in the composition of string quartets and symphonies concertantes, which feature soloists with orchestras. Boulogne occasionally conducted another major orchestra, the Concert Spirituel, which presented his works, and in 1775 he became director of the theater and orchestra of Madame de Montesson, wife of the duc d’Orléans. He was also music adviser to Marie-Antoinette, wife of King Louis XVI.
With the charisma of a matinee idol, Boulogne skillfully navigated the nuanced waters of upper-class French society. Welcomed into the Lodge of the Nine Sisters of the Grand Orient of France, he became the first person of color within the ranks of French Freemasonry. Counting the king and Marie-Antoinette among his many patrons and friends, he was the toast of the Parisian salon world. A dashing favorite of the ladies, from whom he did not withhold his charms, he was also known to bestow much of his fortune on both his friends and the unfortunate. He was well received at the influential salons of Madame de Vauban, the marquise de Montalembert, and the celebrated painter Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun. In a different arena, there is evidence that he served the duc d’Orléans as a secret agent in Belgium and England.
Though theoretically enjoying the rights and freedoms of other French subjects, people of color in eighteenth century France generally experienced declining mobility as France’s role in the international slave trade increased. The prevalence of Enlightenment ideals did little to soften government rules limiting the presence of Africans and biracial people in France. Exceptional as he was, Boulogne was never beyond the snares of racial prejudice. Although he was often referred to as “the famous Saint-Georges,” he was equally “the Black Don Juan” or simply “the Mulatto.” When Louis XVI wanted to appoint Boulogne director of the Paris Opera, three women artists informed the queen that they would never submit to the orders of a mulatto. The position remained vacant.
Notwithstanding his aristocratic connections, in 1789 Boulogne espoused the republican ideals of the French Revolution. He joined the national guard in Lille and served as an officer under the marquis de Lafayette. In September, 1792, the national assembly authorized the formation of a contingent of one thousand free people of color, to be known as the National Legion of the South. Boulogne was appointed colonel in command of the unit, which soon came to be known as the Saint-Georges Legion. Second in command was Thomas Rétoré Davy de La Pailleterie, the mulatto father of Alexandre Dumas, père, who wrote Les Trois Mousquetaires (1844; The Three Musketeers, 1846).
In his military capacity, Boulogne helped the Army of the North defend against the Austrians, but later elements of the Saint-Georges Legion were dispatched to Nantes to punish aristocratic enemies of the revolution. By the spring of 1793, Boulogne found himself denounced for his aristocratic associations and forced to defend his loyalty to the revolution. In September, he forfeited his command, and several days later he was arrested. After eighteen months in prison, Boulogne recovered his liberty but not his military charge.
In 1796, Boulogne returned to the Caribbean to greet the Haitian Revolution, which had erupted in the late summer of 1791. Accompanying Julien Raimond, the leading champion of people of color in the French world, he found the former colony still in the delirium of emancipation but also beset with factious strife. Disappointed, he soon returned to France to recover some of the acclaim that had hitherto been his constant companion; he became musical director of the Circle of Harmony and once again received praise for his performances. Three years later, in 1799, his own death from abdominal ailments just preceded the end of the century of the Enlightenment that he had helped to glorify.
Significance
Virtually without peer, Joseph Boulogne embodied superior athletic skill, musical creativity, and courtly charm. His was an extraordinary story in a society where several thousand people of color, whether enslaved or free, could expect only servile and domestic roles. Unfortunately, Boulogne departed the eighteenth century leaving little personal account of his life and age.
Boulogne’s life enhanced his art. With his remarkable accomplishments in music and athletics and his engaging presence, Boulogne overcame the social disadvantage of his mixed ancestry to become one of the most visible and popular figures in eighteenth century French aristocratic society. His life is a testament to the challenges faced by people of color in a land prominent for Enlightenment ideals, but his story equally reveals the possibilities that talent and character can create even in an unwelcoming environment. In addition to his varied compositions, Boulogne helped to pioneer eighteenth century music techniques such as the symphonie concertante for soloists and orchestra, and his music heralded the advent of the Romantic era.
Bibliography
Guédé, Alain. Monsieur de Saint-George: Virtuoso, Swordsman, Revolutionary. Translated by Gilda Roberts. New York: Picador, 2003. An appreciative, comprehensive study by a journalist at the forefront of the international movement to restore Boulogne’s glory. It differs from other works in identification of his birth year and paternity.
Ribbe, Claude. Le Chevalier de Saint-George. Paris: Éditions Perrin, 2004. A major work by a Guadeloupean intellectual living in France, based considerably on unpublished documents. In French.
Smidak, Emil. Joseph Boulogne, Called Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Lucerne, Switzerland: Avenira Foundation, 1996. A sympathetic treatment by a recognized musicologist, focusing on Boulogne’s musical accomplishments within the context of his life.