Charlotte de Rothschild (May 6, 1825 – July 20, 1899) was a French
socialiteA socialite is a person who is known to be a part of fashionable high society because of their regular participation in social activities and fondness for spending a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained. Some socialites may choose to use their social skills and connections...
,
painterPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete...
, and a member of the prominent
Rothschild banking family of FranceThe Rothschild banking family of France was founded in 1812 in Paris by James Mayer Rothschild . James was sent there from his home in Frankfurt, Germany by his father, Mayer Amschel Rothschild...
. She was born in Paris, the daughter of Betty von Rothschild (1805-1868) and
James Mayer de RothschildJames Mayer de Rothschild was a banker and a member of the prominent Rothschild family.-Biography:...
(1792-1868). Charlotte de Rothschild was raised by very wealthy parents who were at the center of Parisian culture. They patronized a number of major figures in the arts community including
Gioacchino RossiniGioachino Antonio Rossini was a popular Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music and chamber music. His best known works include Il barbiere di Siviglia , La Cenerentola, La gazza ladra and Guillaume Tell...
,
Frédéric ChopinFrédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He was one of the great masters of Romantic music....
,
Honoré de BalzacHonoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815.Due to his keen observation of detail...
,
Eugène DelacroixFerdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
, and
Heinrich HeineChristian Johann Heinrich Heine was a journalist, essayist, literary critic, and one of the most significant German romantic poets. He is remembered chiefly for selections of his lyric poetry, many of which were set to music in the form of lieder by German composers most notably by Robert Schumann...
. As an acknowledgment of the many years of support extended by Baron James and his wife Betty, in 1847 Chopin dedicated his
Valse Op.
Charlotte de Rothschild (May 6, 1825 – July 20, 1899) was a French
socialiteA socialite is a person who is known to be a part of fashionable high society because of their regular participation in social activities and fondness for spending a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained. Some socialites may choose to use their social skills and connections...
,
painterPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete...
, and a member of the prominent
Rothschild banking family of FranceThe Rothschild banking family of France was founded in 1812 in Paris by James Mayer Rothschild . James was sent there from his home in Frankfurt, Germany by his father, Mayer Amschel Rothschild...
. She was born in Paris, the daughter of Betty von Rothschild (1805-1868) and
James Mayer de RothschildJames Mayer de Rothschild was a banker and a member of the prominent Rothschild family.-Biography:...
(1792-1868). Charlotte de Rothschild was raised by very wealthy parents who were at the center of Parisian culture. They patronized a number of major figures in the arts community including
Gioacchino RossiniGioachino Antonio Rossini was a popular Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music and chamber music. His best known works include Il barbiere di Siviglia , La Cenerentola, La gazza ladra and Guillaume Tell...
,
Frédéric ChopinFrédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He was one of the great masters of Romantic music....
,
Honoré de BalzacHonoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815.Due to his keen observation of detail...
,
Eugène DelacroixFerdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
, and
Heinrich HeineChristian Johann Heinrich Heine was a journalist, essayist, literary critic, and one of the most significant German romantic poets. He is remembered chiefly for selections of his lyric poetry, many of which were set to music in the form of lieder by German composers most notably by Robert Schumann...
. As an acknowledgment of the many years of support extended by Baron James and his wife Betty, in 1847 Chopin dedicated his
Valse Op. 64, N° 2 in C sharp minor to Charlotte.
In 1842, she married her
English-bornEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
cousin
Nathaniel de RothschildNathaniel de Rothschild, , known as "Nat," was the founder of the French wine-making branch of the Rothschild family.-Family:...
(1812-1870) and in 1850 they moved to Paris where he went to work at her father's bank, de Rothschild Frères. They were the parents of:
- Nathalie de Rothschild (1843-1843)
- James-Edouard de Rothschild (1844-1881)
- Mayer Albert de Rothschild (1846-1850)
- Arthur de Rothschild (1851-1903)
While Charlotte de Rothschild and her husband would always live in Paris, in 1853 they purchased the Château Brane-Mouton
vineyardA vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture....
that they renamed
Château Mouton RothschildChâteau Mouton Rothschild is a wine estate located in the village of Pauillac in the Médoc, 50 km north-west of the city of Bordeaux, France. Its red wine of the same name is regarded as one of the world's greatest clarets. Originally known as Château Brane-Mouton it was renamed by Nathaniel...
. In 1878, Charlotte bought the Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay in
Cernay-la-VilleCernay-la-Ville is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.-See also:*Communes of the Yvelines department* Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey* Communes of the Yvelines department-References:*...
in the
Vallée de ChevreuseVallée de Chevreuse is the name given to the valley of the Yvette River, flowing though the Yvelines and Essonne departments....
, at the time only a ruins of a
CistercianThe Order of Cistercians is a Roman Catholic religious order of enclosed monks. They are sometimes also called the White Monks, in reference to the colour of the habit, over which a black scapular or apron is sometimes worn...
abbeyAn abbey , is a Christian monastery or convent, under the government of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community....
built in 1118. She undertook extensive restoration work and new construction to make the lakeside property into a country home. The property remained in family hands until 1945 when it was by sold by her grandson Henri James de Rothschild to aircraft manufacturer
Félix AmiotFélix Amiot was a French aircraft constructor.Amiot's first aircraft was built in a Paris garage in 1913, but it was not until 1916, during the First World War, that he became seriously involved in construction. The Minister of Defence granted a contract to SECM Félix Amiot (Cherbourg,...
.
Like her father, Charlotte de Rothschild was a collector of art and grew up around his artistic friends. As an adult, Charlotte would count amongst her friends the likes of Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot,
Henri RousseauHenri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French Post-Impressionist painter in the Naive or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier after his place of employment...
, and
Édouard ManetÉdouard Manet , 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883, was a French painter. One of the first nineteenth century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism....
. Her art purchases included works by
Henri Fantin-LatourHenri Fantin-Latour was a French painter and lithographer.-Biography:Born Ignace Henri Jean Théodore Fantin-Latour in Grenoble, Rhône-Alpes, France, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris...
,
Louis-Léopold BoillyLouis-Léopold Boilly was a French painter. A number of his paintings vividly document the French middle-class social life of his time.-External links:* {World Wide Art Resources}* * {Book Review}...
,
Anthony van DyckSir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of King Charles I of England and Scotland and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English...
plus a number by
Rococo paintersRococo is a style of 18th century French art and interior design. Rococo rooms were designed as total works of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings...
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon ChardinJean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin was an 18th-century French painter. He is considered a master of still life.-Life:Chardin was born in Paris, the son of a cabinetmaker, and rarely left the city...
,
Giovanni Battista TiepoloGiovanni Battista Tiepolo, also known as Gianbattista or Giambattista Tiepolo was a Venetian painter and printmaker...
and
François BoucherFrançois Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...
. However, Charlotte de Rothschild's interest in art went beyond collecting. Talented in her own right, she studied with Nélie Jacquemart (1841-1912) and would earn respect for her landscape paintings, watercolors and engravings, enough so that she is recognized in the
Benezit Dictionary of ArtistsThe Benezit Dictionary of Artists is an extensive publication of bibliographical information on painters, sculptors, designers and engravers created primarily for art museums, auction houses, historians and dealers...
. In the 1860s, she exhibited at the annual salon of the Société des aquarellistes français, then in 1872 at the
Paris SalonThe Salon , or rarely Paris Salon , beginning in 1725 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Between 1748–1890 it was the greatest annual or biannual art event in the western world...
as well as at an 1879 exhibition in London. Although a minor artist, her work has been on display at the
Musée du LuxembourgMusée du Luxembourg is a museum in Paris, France. Situated near the Palais du Luxembourg, it once housed paintings and sculpture from the nineteenth century. Much of this collection was moved to the Musée d'Orsay at its opening in 1986...
in Paris and other museums around France.
Charlotte de Rothschild's interest extended to music, entertaining musician friends such as
Georges BizetGeorges Bizet was a French composer and pianist of the Romantic era. He is best known for the opera Carmen.-Biography:Bizet was born at 26 rue de la Tour d'Auvergne in the 9th arrondissement of Paris in 1838...
and
Camille Saint-SaënsCharles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, organist, conductor, and pianist, known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre, Samson and Delilah, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, and his Symphony No...
.
Tragedy struck her family in 1881 when she lost her eldest surviving child, thirty-seven-year-old James-Edouard. An attorney in the Rothschild bank in Paris, James-Edouard de Rothschild had served in the
Garde MobileDuring the crises that led up to the Franco-Prussian War, Adolphe Niel, Minister of War for France under Louis-Napoleon attempted to bolster French military might by bringing into existence a service which would provide reserves to be added to the French army...
during the
Franco-Prussian WarThe Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between France and Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and Bavaria...
and suffered from a number of illnesses, including
depressionMajor depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
that led to his
suicideSuicide is the intentional killing of one's self. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest"...
.
Charlotte de Rothschild's lifetime of involvement in art and music would greatly influence her offspring, producing writers, actors and playwrights.