Delfina Potocka

Delfina Potocka, née Komar (March 18072 April 1877), a Polish countess, was a friend and muse to Polish expatriate artists Frédéric Chopin and Zygmunt Krasiński. She was noted for her beauty, intellect and artistic gifts. However, the supposed erotic correspondence between Chopin and Potocka ("Fryderyk Chopin's Letters to Delfina Potocka"), which Paulina Czernicka claimed to have discovered in Poland in the 1940s, has been proved a forgery.

Potocka met Krasiński in Naples, Italy, on 24 December 1838 and soon became his beloved confidante, to whom he revealed his innermost thoughts, and for whom he wrote "Sen Cezary" ("Cezara's Dream", published 1840) and the Messianic poem, "Przedświt" ("Predawn", published 1843). Potocka was the great love of Krasiński's life and fully reciprocated his feelings. Their romance lasted to 1846, after which she remained his friend and muse. (In July 1843, Krasiński had married Countess Eliza Branicka.) His letters to Delfina, written between 1839 and 1859, are considered a monument to romantic love.

Potocka's friendships with Chopin and Krasiński are recorded in works that the two artists created in her honor, including poems by Krasiński and Chopin's Waltz in D-flat major, Op. 64 — the "Minute Waltz."

Potocka died in Paris, France, on 2 April 1877 and is interred at Paris's Montmorency Cemetery.