Pauline Prévost-Marcilhacy: The Rothschild Women

With Charlotte, Béatrice, Adèle, Cécile, Liliane and others, nine women are honored in this exhibition focusing on the Baronesses de Rothschild, collectors and patrons, staged in partnership with the Musée du Louvre. Nine women with extraordinary destinies. How did this exhibition come about? The idea did not come from me, but from Pierre Paquet, the director of the Musée La Boverie in Liège. He wanted to devote an exhibition to the Rothschild women collectors after reading the three books I edited on Les Rothschild, une dynastie de mécènes en France (The Rothschilds: A Dynasty of Patrons in France) . But it’s true that I mentioned female patronage in my introduction because the project had brought to light some important women hitherto overlooked. This enormous set has become the reference work on Rothschild donations... Nine years’ work was involved, but the project goes back a long way, as I started working on the Rothschilds in 1987. At the time, I was looking for a subject for my thesis. I was interested in the Rothschilds as builders, but there was nothing on the topic. I unearthed 60 buildings that were built by them. At that time, I met Baron Élie, who suggested something else: making an inventory of everything the family had…