Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild, a Fanciful Collector

Of all the collectors in the Rothschild family, Béatrice, a leading figure in France’s Gilded Age high society, was among the most whimsical. The artworks and objects selected from her Saint-Jean-Cap Ferrat villa that were exhibited at FAB reflect her originality.

“I want to illustrate a collector’s taste,” says Oriane Beaufils, the young woman newly appointed as curator at the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild.  The 50 art objects she has brought from Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to the FAB Paris show at the Grand Palais sketch a portrait of their former owner.  Béatrice Ephrussi free-spiritedly mixed masterpieces of French 18^th-century joinery with curious furniture.  The show celebrates two anniversaries: her birth in 1864 and the 90^th year since her donation to the Institut de France. Indeed, the baroness bequeathed the Saint-Jean-Cap Ferrat villa and 5,000 works from her different residences, including furniture, textiles, sculptures, curios and paintings, from the early Italian Renaissance works to the Impressionists, to the Académie des beaux arts, but under one condition:  that the future museum preserve the atmosphere of a home. A family trait Béatrice—Charlotte Béatrix was her real name—grew up among prestigious collections.  Her paternal grandfather, James de Rothschild, had the lavish Château de Ferrières built.  Her father Alphonse, a regent of the Banque de France, was an erudite aesthete, an admirer of old masters and a patron of the arts who championed the artists of his time.  When Béatrice was 19 years old she married Maurice Ephrussi, a friend of her parents from Odessa 15 years her senior.  The groom was unattractive and quite “vulgar”, according to the always-harsh Élisabeth de Clermont-Tonnerre, but he was a banker, Jewish and rich.  Béatrice, on the other hand, was graceful.  Journalist Léon Daudet, who dined with her at Marcel Proust’s home, wrote to his host that she resembled “a portrait by Nattier”.  Béatrice wore clothes by the best designers:  Doucet, Paquin and Poiret.  In Paris, the couple lived in a mansion at 19 avenue du Bois, where they gave countless parties.  Sometimes, to have a bit of fun, the mistress of the house would plan a reception without sending out invitation cards. She loved the idea that the invitation got around by word-of-mouth—between people from the same world, of course.  Unfortunately, the marriage was a failure.  Maurice was rumored to have given his tender wife a disease that prevented her from having children.  What’s more, he gambled. He lost fortunes at the race track and made disastrous speculative investments,  eventually running up a debt of 12 million gold francs.  Baron Alphonse loaned his daughter enough money to pay back the creditors—with interest.  The couple was legally separated in 1904, but to keep up appearances Madame Ephrussi continued using her married name.  Her father died a year later.

An Architectural Masterpiece

A monumental building project took Béatrice’s mind off her grief.  On a visit to the Côte d’Azur, where the privileged classes spent the winter, the baroness discovered the Cap Ferrat peninsula, an idyllic spot where she bought a seven-hectare (17.29 acres) plot of land on a rocky spur. The land was blasted flat with dynamite and tons of earth were hauled in to cover the barren rock.  Leading architects were asked to submit plans, including Charles Girault, who designed the Petit Palais in Paris.  For each of the nine projects submitted, Béatrice had a life-sized model made of plaster and trompe l’œil canvas.  Money  was no object. This extravagance allowed her to picture the future building. To design her beloved French-style gardens,  she had her employees stand around the grounds wearing green cardboard cones to envision the placement of the topiary sculptures. Nadine de Rothschild tells this and other stories in her entertaining book Très chères baronnes de Rothschild  Gourcuff Gradenigo, 2023. Béatrice eventually chose the plans by Paris architect Jacques Marcel Auburtin but entrusted their execution to a counterpart of his from Nice, Aaron Messiah, whose claim to fame was a Riviera residence for the Belgian King, Leopold II.  It took seven years and the baroness monitored the building site every day. She was omnipresent, demanding and capricious.  Of course, she was less assiduous when it came to paying the bills.  Ms. Beaufils sifted through her personal records, finding many letters from suppliers, joiners and masons claiming their due.  Completed in 1912, the Italian Renaissance-inspired palace features a number of odd additions, including a reproduction of the doorway of the church of Saint Médard in Paris on the façade. The spacious interior courtyard lined by pink marble columns recalls a Spanish patio.  The elevated house has heavenly views of the sea, with Beaulieu Bay on one side and Villefranche Harbor on the other.  Béatrice named the villa “Ile-de-France” in reference to an ocean liner—not the French ocean liner Art Deco masterpiece, but the ship built in 1903 for the Société générale des transports maritimes à vapeur.  According to legend, her gardeners had to dress up in sailor’s uniforms and berets with a pompom on top.  Curiosity prompted her to tour Italy, Egypt, Russia, India, China and Japan.  Baroness Ephrussi was an independent, modern, active woman.  She drove her three Rolls Royce cars herself at a time when just a very few daring women sat behind the steering wheel.  A sports enthusiast, she belonged to a women’s flying club  and even attended  boxing matches.  She also enjoyed music and dance. In 1909, she invited the Ballets Russes to perform Les Sylphides in her Paris mansion, as Pauline Prévost-Marcilhacy wrote in an INHA paper.  Béatrice faithfully attended the opera but could also be seen at the Folies-Bergère.  Her other indulgence was gambling.  She bought two properties in Monte Carlo, first the Villa Soleil, then the Villa Rose de France, just to be near the casino, decorating them with her usual free-spirited flair, even going so far as to turn an extremely rare 14^th-century Italian altarpiece by the Master of Cesi into doors.

The Poodles and the Mongoose

The baroness loved animals. In 1897, The Morning Times, an American newspaper, reported on a historic event: the wedding of her two poodles, Diane and Major.  Diane wore a white satin gown, while Major was dressed in tails, a bow tie and patent leather shoes.  About a hundred guests and their dogs were invited.  Did the journalist make it all up?  Probably not. After all, this was a woman who kept a tamed mongoose that lounged on Louis XVI sofas and lived with monkeys.  Moreover, she liked the “singeries” that were fashionable during the Age of Enlightenment.  The wood paneling in her boudoir—genuine and copies—featured costumed animals parodying humans, while the display cabinets showcased a guenon-shaped teapot and an orchestra of musical monkeys made in Meissen.  The baroness was mad about porcelain,  which antique dealers Henri Stettiner and Auguste Vandermeersch tracked down for her. “She had the finest collection of Sèvres porcelain in France after that of the Louvre,” says Ms. Beaufils.  A thousand pieces, including 300 cups, illustrate every shape, style and color developed at Sèvres: celestial blue, “beau bleu”, lapis blue, “petit vert” and Pompadour pink, the baroness’s favorite color.  In 1975, the façade of the Villa Ile-de-France was painted candy pink, but during its owner’s lifetime it featured the same delicate sandy yellow color as old houses in Tuscany that, thankfully, will be restored  during the current renovation.

Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild
in four dates
1864
Born September 14 in Paris
1905
Buys a seven-hectare (17.29 acre) plot of land on Cap Ferrat
1912
Opens the “Ile-de-France” villa
1934
Bequeaths the “villa-museum” and its collections to the Académie des beaux-arts

Worth reading
La Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild – Histoire et collections by Oriane Beaufils, Académie des beaux-arts 2024, 146 pages, €19