Joseph Bologne: French musical maestro

Nige Tassell tells the story of the celebrated Caribbean-born violinist and composer whose spectacular rise to the top of 18th-century French society is the subject of an upcoming Hollywood biopic

- Nige Tassell

It's a long way from the rural Caribbean to Parisian high society. Arriving into this world on Christmas Day in 1745 in Guadeloupe, Joseph Bologne was born to an enslaved woman named Nanon who was the personal assistant of the wife of a local plantation owner. That plantation owner - Georges de Bologne Saint-Georges - was the baby's father.

However, despite being married and baby Joseph being born out of wedlock, Georges recognised the child as his and gave him his surname. He appeared to not be affected by any social shame of the time. Indeed, two years after seven-year-old Joseph was sent away to boarding school in France, Georges and Nanon would join him in Paris and the three would live together in a high-status apartment.

When he was 13, Joseph was enrolled in a fencing school where he showed outstanding physical prowess. His sword skills helped him become an officer of the king's bodyguard by 1766. He was also named a chevalier, a type of knighthood, which he added to his name (as a man of mixed heritage, he couldn't inherit his father's title: Gentleman of the King's Chamber).

TAKING UP THE BATON