Jane Stirling

Jean ("Jane") Wilhelmina Stirling (15 July 1804 – 6 February 1859) was a Scottish amateur pianist who is best known as a student and later friend of Frédéric Chopin, who dedicated Nocturnes, Op. 55 to her. She took him on a tour of England and Scotland in 1848, and took charge of the disposal of his effects and manuscripts after his death in 1849.

Life Jane Stirling was born Jean Wilhelmina Stirling as the youngest of 13 children of John Stirling of Kippendavie, at Kippenross House, near Dunblane in Perthshire, and was descended from a noble Scottish family. Her father died when Jane was 12, and her mother died when she was 16. perhaps in 1842 She became his pupil immediately. Chopin does not mention her until 1844. However, whether Chopin intended this collection to serve as a basis for a revised collected edition of his music is an open question. She also became his secretary, agent and business manager. She arranged his concert at the Salle Pleyel on 16 February 1848, and also attended to the heating, the ventilation, and the flowers. The concluding item of the concert was the Barcarolle in F-sharp major, but Chopin was too exhausted to complete the final section. After managing to walk unaided to his dressing room, he collapsed in Jane Stirling's arms. This was to prove his final Paris concert.

She studied the piano further under Thomas Tellefsen, himself a Chopin pupil. staying with Stirling's sister Ann at Johnstone Castle. Jane Stirling dragged him from one wealthy relative to another, including the Stirling clan chief, William Stirling at Keir House, Dunblane, an art collector

Although she was almost six years older than Chopin (she was born in July 1804, the same month as George Sand), it was generally rumored at this time that Chopin and Stirling were shortly to be engaged. This never happened; indeed, there is no indication in any of Chopin's letters that he ever felt any amorous feelings for her. On the contrary, she often bored him. To another he wrote: "I'm nearer the grave than the nuptial bed." He referred to both Stirling and Mrs. Erskine as "mes braves Écossaises", and was frequently exasperated by their oversolicitude, saying "They will suffocate me with their goodness",

His final concert in Britain was on 16 November at London's Guildhall, where he played despite being desperately ill.

Chopin on His Deathbed, by Teofil Kwiatkowski, 1849, commissioned by Jane Stirling. Chopin sits in bed, in the presence of (from left) Aleksander Jełowicki, Chopin's sister Ludwika Jędrzejewicz, Marcelina Czartoryska, Wojciech Grzymała, and Kwiatkowski himself. During Chopin's last weeks in 1849, Stirling commissioned the Polish artist Teofil Kwiatkowski to produce an oil painting of Chopin, which also included Chopin's sister Ludwika (Louisa) Jędrzejewicz, Marcelina Czartoryska and Wojciech Grzymała. She had some of the furniture shipped to Calder House near Edinburgh. It was displayed in a special room which became known as the Chopin Museum. She also collected various manuscripts, sketches, letters and other papers of his, containing handwritten comments, variants and dedications. She had a considerable correspondence with Ludwika Jędrzejewicz concerning the posthumous publication of some of his unpublished works, and 25 of these letters are now in the Muzeum Fryderyka Chopina in Warsaw. Her will bequeathed her Chopin museum to Chopin's mother Justyna Chopin. In 1863 much of it was destroyed when Russian troops pillaged Warsaw's Zamoyski palace in reprisal for Polish attempts on the life of the Russian viceroy (Namiestnik) of Poland, Friedrich Wilhelm Rembert von Berg. One item which still exists is a lock of Chopin's auburn hair which Jane had kept.