Collectionneuses Rothschild : Mécènes Et Donatrices D'exception

Exhibition at La Boverie, Liège, 21 October 2022 - 26 February 2023

Since the 19th century, the Rothschild family has been synonymous with success in the world of finance, but also with intellectual and artistic wealth. However, the women of this family have often been ignored by art history, even though they have contributed significantly to the enrichment of France's historical heritage and museum collections through their considerable gifts and bequests.

This exhibition catalogue highlights nine female members of the family who were collectors, builders, patrons and heirs: Charlotte, Adèle, Béatrice, Alice, Mathilde, Thérèse, Alix, Liliane and Cécile de Rothschild. Sometimes very independent, sometimes in the shadow of their husbands, they played an important role in the history of art, history, society and even in the lives of the artists of their time.

Through a selection of more than 350 works from some forty French institutions and private collections, the book proposes a journey made up of works from all periods and all horizons: works by Fragonard, Chardin, Delacroix, Cézanne, Claudel, Rodin, Egon Schiele, Calder, paintings from the Italian Renaissance, collections of jewellery and porcelain, objects of African and Far Eastern art; so many works of art that bear witness to the history of taste and collecting throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.