Félicité Hullin, a lady of “amabilité, gentillesse, bonté, fierté d’âme, désintéressement”

This article reports on discoveries recently published by two Russian scholars, Véra Milchina and A.A. Nikolayev, about Félicité Hullin who travelled with Fernando Sor to Russia and then had an important role in the development of ballet in Russia. Then I report on the official documentation of her wedding in 1846 to one Hippolyte Hertel, and on the will which she made in Paris in 1873. We see from Véra Milchina’s article that someone who knew her well in Russia wrote that she was a lady of “amabilité, gentillesse, bonté, fierté d’âme, désintéressement”; then from Nikolayev’s article we see not only that she was instrumental in the teaching of ballet in Russia but that she held the post of ballet-master of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and choreographed performances there from 1831 to 1839; and from her will we see that she was a careful, responsible and loving person who took care of other people in the specifications of that will.