Baron Philippe de Rothschild (1902–1988) revolutionised the Château Mouton Rothschild vineyard, leading it to world renown [Fig. 1, 2].
Born in Paris, he was the son of Henri de Rothschild (1872–1947) of the French branch of the Jewish banking family and Mathilde von Weissweiller (1874–1926). Philippe had an apartment in the family’s Château de la Muette estate in Paris [Fig. 3].
Baron Philippe’s art collection included Portrait d’une femme, à mi corps by Nicolas de Largillierre, one of the most prominent painters in Paris during the reign of Louis XIV and the Regency [Fig. 4]. Through an iconic photograph taken on the steps of Neuschwanstein Castle in May 1945 [Fig. 15], this painting would come to symbolise the Allies’ Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives program and their recovery of French-Jewish collections looted by the Nazi regime. At the age of 22, Philippe took over the management of the Château Mouton Rothschild vineyard in Pauillac, which would become his life’s work. The vineyard had been owned by the Rothschild family since 1853, but under Philippe’s guidance it would become a site of modernisation. One of his major innovations was the decision in 1924 to mature, bottle and market the wine on-site. Before then, this part of the wine production process had been entirely handled by wine merchants rather than the growers.
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CULTURAL PURSUITS
As a young man, Philippe also pursued other interests aside from the business. They included race-car driving, sailing, film production and theatre — passions he shared with his father Henri. In the early 1920s, Henri de Rothschild decided to build his own theatre and put Philippe in charge of managing its construction. Built in the Art Deco-style by architects Henri Just, Pierre Blum and Charles Siclis, the Théâtre de Pigalle in Paris featured the most up-to-date stage technology when it opened in 1929. The art critic Georges Brunon-Guardia described it as ‘architecture nocturne’, designed to be illuminated by neon lights [Fig. 6].
The theatre also included a ground-floor gallery, inaugurated with a Jean-Siméon Chardin exhibition that included many paintings from the collection of Philippe’s father Henri de Rothschild. The foundation for the Chardin collection had been laid by Henri’s grandmother Baroness Charlotte de Rothschild in the late 19th century, with Henri adding further masterpieces, including Jeune fille au volant, purchased in 1906. That Chardin was also looted during World War II and subsequently restituted [Fig. 7].
Philippe also commissioned Charles Siclis (1889-1942) for the design of a barrel hall (grand chai) on the Mouton Rothschild estate, a summer home at Pyla-sur-Mer and the refurbishment of his Paris home. A 1930 article following the redesign of Philippe’s Paris apartment mentions two male portraits by Nicolas de Largillierre as well the aforementioned Jeune fille au volant by Chardin. One of the photographs accompanying the article illustrates the dynamic contrast between 18th-century paintings and the apartment designed in a modern 1930s style [Fig. 8, 9].
In 1934, Philippe de Rothschild married Elisabeth Pelletier de Chambure (1902–1945), with whom he had two children, Philippine (1933–2014) and Charles Henri (b. and d. 1938). The couple separated in the late 1930s, and in 1954, he married Pauline Fairfax Potter (1908–1976).
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CULTURAL PURSUITS
As a young man, Philippe also pursued other interests aside from the business. They included race-car driving, sailing, film production and theatre — passions he shared with his father Henri. In the early 1920s, Henri de Rothschild decided to build his own theatre and put Philippe in charge of managing its construction. Built in the Art Deco-style by architects Henri Just, Pierre Blum and Charles Siclis, the Théâtre de Pigalle in Paris featured the most up-to-date stage technology when it opened in 1929. The art critic Georges Brunon-Guardia described it as ‘architecture nocturne’, designed to be illuminated by neon lights [Fig. 6].
The theatre also included a ground-floor gallery, inaugurated with a Jean-Siméon Chardin exhibition that included many paintings from the collection of Philippe’s father Henri de Rothschild. The foundation for the Chardin collection had been laid by Henri’s grandmother Baroness Charlotte de Rothschild in the late 19th century, with Henri adding further masterpieces, including Jeune fille au volant, purchased in 1906. That Chardin was also looted during World War II and subsequently restituted [Fig. 7].
Philippe also commissioned Charles Siclis (1889-1942) for the design of a barrel hall (grand chai) on the Mouton Rothschild estate, a summer home at Pyla-sur-Mer and the refurbishment of his Paris home. A 1930 article following the redesign of Philippe’s Paris apartment mentions two male portraits by Nicolas de Largillierre as well the aforementioned Jeune fille au volant by Chardin. One of the photographs accompanying the article illustrates the dynamic contrast between 18th-century paintings and the apartment designed in a modern 1930s style [Fig. 8, 9].
In 1934, Philippe de Rothschild married Elisabeth Pelletier de Chambure (1902–1945), with whom he had two children, Philippine (1933–2014) and Charles Henri (b. and d. 1938). The couple separated in the late 1930s, and in 1954, he married Pauline Fairfax Potter (1908–1976).
‘The year 1941 was truly the “Rothschild year” for the ERR ... In April of the same year, works of art owned by Philippe de Rothschild were taken to Paris by the Devisenschutzkommando, which had discovered them in the vaults at Société Générale in Arcachon. This organization was mainly concerned with financial assets, but it did not disdain works of art which it transferred to its parallel organization, the ERR.’
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During World War II, Philippe de Rothschild was arrested by Vichy government agents in North Africa. His French nationality was revoked and his assets, including the vineyard and his art collection, seized. Released in April 1941, he was able to flee to London, where he joined the Free French Forces.
Tragically, his first wife, Elisabeth Pelletier de Chambure, was deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she perished.
After the war, Philippe oversaw the restoration of the Château Mouton Rothschild vineyard, which produced wine again from the early 1950s.
At the approach of the war, Philippe had placed two crates of artworks — including the Largillierre — into storage at the Société Générale in the seaside town of Arcachon, not far from the wine estate. In November 1940, the crates were confiscated by the Vichy government and inventoried. The Nazi looting agencies Devisenschutzkommando and Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) ordered their transfer to the Jeu de Paume on 24 February 1941 [Fig. 10].
The Largillierre was given the ERR inventory number R 437 [Fig. 11, 12] and shipped to the ERR depot at Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria. During the Occupation, Rose Valland had identified the ERR’s storage depots in Germany through risky and painstaking intelligence-gathering. In the post-war period, she would share that information with Capt. James Rorimer, director of the of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives program (MFA&A) and would go on to work for the art recovery effort [Fig. 13, 14].
‘There was one important question that remained unanswered: where had the works of art that were removed to Germany been secreted? Once more Rose went into the next room. She returned with photographs of the two castles near Füssen on the southern confines of Bavaria. “In the castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau”, she said, “the Nazis have collected and catalogued their booty. There, and at Buxheim near Memmingen, will be all the records and all the works of art taken from France.’
An iconic photograph documents the recovery of the Largillierre at Neuschwanstein Castle by US soldiers in May 1945. The photograph shows three soldiers, holding a painting each, and Capt. James Rorimer on the castle steps [Fig. 15, 16]. The soldier holding the Largillierre portrait is Sgt. Anthony Terra Valim. As well as artworks [Fig. 17], the Allies recovered ERR records at Neuschwanstein Castle, including index cards and photo albums. The Largillierre portrait is on the first page of volume 6 of the ERR photo albums (43 volumes have been found, more than 50 remain missing). Volume 6 was recovered by the Monuments Men and Women Foundation in 2007 and is today in the National Archives in Washington DC.
The Largillierre portrait arrived back in Paris in late November 1945 and was restituted to the Rothschild family in May 1946 [Fig. 18].
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‘There was one important question that remained unanswered: where had the works of art that were removed to Germany been secreted? Once more Rose went into the next room. She returned with photographs of the two castles near Füssen on the southern confines of Bavaria. “In the castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau”, she said, “the Nazis have collected and catalogued their booty. There, and at Buxheim near Memmingen, will be all the records and all the works of art taken from France.’
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
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