Hanská, Ewelina |
| NOBLEMAN, PATRON (RUSSIAN EMPIRE) |
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BORN 6 Jan 1804, Pohrebychtche - DIED 10 Apr 1882, Paris: 22 Rue Balzac BIRTH NAME Rzewuska, Ewelina Konstancja Wiktoria GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Père Lachaise, Rue du Repos 16 (division 48, ligne 01, Q, 9) |
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Ewelina Hanská was born into a Polish family in Pohrebyszcze, now in Ukraine. She married the Polish count Waclaw Hanski (1782-1841) in 1819. He was 21 years her senior. They had six children but only their daughter Anna (b.1828) survived. She read French newspapers and novels and became an admirer of Honoré de Balzac. She sent him an anonymous letter that she signed l'Étrangère. A long correspondence followed and from the third letter he declared her his love although he had never seen her and didn't know her age. Ewelina persuaded her husband to make a trip to Neuchâtel and there she first met Balzac on 25 September 1833. They met again for a short time in Geneva and again in January 1834. In 1835 he met her again in Vienna without any privacy. She was widowed in 1841 and he was still in love with her. but only in 1850 she agreed to marry him. Balzac died a few months later. She settled his estate and remained in Paris, where she befriended the writer Champfleury and the painter Jean Gigoux, who painted her. She had an affair with Gigoux until her death in Paris in 1882. Family • Husband: Balzac, Honoré de (1850-1850, Berdytchiv) |
| Images |
 The grave of Honoré de Balzac at Père Lachaise, Paris. Picture by Androom (28 Aug 2001) |
Sources • Ewelina Haáska - Wikipédia (FR) |
