Ephrussi is a French Jewish Banker Family – 19th Century
The Ephrussi were once a very wealthy European Jewish family. They were in banking. Maurice Ephrussi, french Jewish banker, married Charlotte Béatrice de Rothschild (19 years old) in 1883. Of course, both families (and other Jewish families in Europe in the 19th century married each other)
The couple will collect art and decorative objects.
11 years later, they divorced.
Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild kept buying art, and developed a passion for 18th century french art, or some more exotic art as well.
Other major art collections were built by passionate people at the same time. Among them, Edouard André and Nelly Jacquemart for example. You can today visit the fascinated museum Jacquedmart-André in Paris.
Another example is the Jewish collector Moses de Camondo. His amazing collection is visible at the museum Nissim de Camondo in Paris today. You can learn more about him here : (link with page on the website).
Béatrice Ephrussi then discovered le cap Ferrat en 1905, on the French Riviera, holiday destination for the bourgeoisie in the 19th century.
She was charmed by the area, and built the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild.
You can visit the house today. Beatrice died in Switzerland in 1934, at 69 years old.
She bequeathed her villa to the Academy of Fine Arts.
The Ephrussis lost almost everything during WWII. After the war, the family failed to recover the artwork.
Maurice Ephrussi, husband of Beatrice, is the uncle of Charles Ephrussi. Charles was a historian, art critic and an art collector. He helped Renoir’s career, and discovered the Japanese art and prints, at the same time as the impressionists (like Monet, Manet, Renoir etc…)
In his collection, 264 Japanese miniatures. Hopefully, some of the collections that stayed hidden . The miniatures were hidden inside of a mattress in Vienna, by the maid of Palais Ephrussi called Anna.
The book,“The Hare With Amber Eyes.” which takes its name from one of the figures, tells the story of the collection and the family, which survived World War II by spreading out into a worldwide diaspora.
I hope you enjoyed reading me,
I will keep you updated about the situation here in Paris, especially in my jewish neighborhood where we will celebrate Pessah , Virtually !
I will show you picture of Pessah 2020 in the Jewish Paris Quarter
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