George Sand (born Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin) and Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin) are one of the more unlikely art couples. Other than each carrying a name of operatic proportion, the question lingers: What drew together a woman who adopted male dress, smoked in public and wrote with unapologetic force, and a man whose physical fragility seemed at odds with the emotional architecture of his music?

For this week’s Living Art Meaningfully: The Art Couple, the answer begins in polarity—strength meeting sensitivity, structure meeting volatility.