Pauline Viardot

Born into a celebrated family of Spanish performers, Pauline Garcia Viardot was initially lost in the shadow of her beautiful and talented sister, Maria. But Maria's sudden death forced the 15-year-old Pauline into the limelight, with astonishing results. She was hailed as a opera singer par excellence, as well as a composer of no small talent. She studied alongside Franz Liszt and was taught Russian by the poet Ivan Turgenev -- Turgenev fell completely under her spell and remained devoted to her all his life. She married author and director Louis Viardot in 1840, and had four children (some or all of which may have been Turgenev's). Her career flourished in the 1840s, and in 1843 her good friend George Sand wrote her into her novel "Consuelo" as its heroine. In 1863 Pauline Viardot retired from the stage, and devoted herself to nursing both her husband and Turgenev, who both died in 1883. She died peacefully in 1910 and was buried at Cimetière de Montmartre.