Portrait of Joseph Bologne de Saint-George (1745-1799), by Mather Brown (engraving by William Ward)
Chevalier de Saint-George was the quintessential European gentleman. He was a virtuoso violinist, composer, equestrian, and swordsman. He was known as the “Black Mozart” due to his musical skill, and is one of the few European Classical musicians of African ancestry.
The French-Caribbean Boulogne was born to a white plantation owner and Nanon, a Wolof former slave. Boulogne acquired the name de Saint-George after one of his father’s properties. While still living in Guadeloupe, de Saint-George studied violin under another talented violinist of color, Joseph Platon. Determined to have his son be part of the aristocracy, de Saint-George’s father moved the family to Paris in 1749, where de Saint-George began his schooling.
He seemed to be best at everything he set out to do. His fencing master called him an expert at age 17. Not only was he a virtuoso at music and fencing, but he was also a physical specimen. The actual description of his looks (from the same fencing master, I think), is:
“Saint George had grown to a height of five feet ten inches [exceptional for the time]. He was very well built, with a prodigious strength of body and extraordinary vigor. Lively, supple, and slender, he astonished everyone with his agility. No one in the class showed more grace, more consistency.”
Eventually, de Saint George became a member of royal court in Versailles (I’d like to imagine that the black guy that was teaching Marie Antoinette the piano in Marie Antoinette was an homage to him). However it seems like he had such a storied life, he also had to face racism and later, the French Revolution.
In respect of his skill as both a composer and musician, Boulogne was selected for appointment as the director of the Royal Opera of Louis XVI. Despite his position as the only eligible applicant, Boulogne was refused, prevented by three Parisian divas who petitioned the Queen. Writing against the appointment, the trio insisted it would be beneath their dignity and injurious to their professional reputations for them to sing on stage under the direction of “a mulatto”.
As a member of the aristocracy and the royal court at Versailles, Boulogne served in the army of the Revolution against France’s monarchist enemies. An amateur in war apart from his fencing past, Boulogne took command of a regiment of a thousand colored volunteers. Despite military success, he was repeatedly denounced because of his aristocratic parentage and past association with the royal court, and Boulogne was dismissed from the army on September 25, 1793 and imprisoned. Fortunately, he was acquitted after spending 18 months in jail. After the revolution, Boulogne continued to lead orchestras but struggled to find his place in a France very different from the indulgent aristocracy he was accustomed to. Resigned to the life of a commoner Joseph Boulogne died in 1799 at the age of 54, falling into obscurity.
