Sunday, August 21, 2011

Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild




Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild is a French seaside palazzo constructed between 1905 and 1912 at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the French Riviera by Baroness Béatrice de Rothschild (1864–1934) in the Goût Rothschild. It was designed by the Belgian architect Aaron Messiah. A member of the prominent Rothschild banking family and the wife of the wealthy Russian-Jewish banker Baron de Ephrussi, Béatrice de Rothschild built her rose-colored villa on a promontory on the isthmus of Cap Ferrat overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The Baroness filled the mansion with antique furniture, Old Master paintings, sculptures, objets d'art, and assembled an extensive collection of rare porcelain. The gardens are classified by the French Ministry of Culture as one of the Notable Gardens of France.

On her death in 1934, the Baroness charitably gifted the property and its collections to the Académie des Beaux Arts division of the Institut de France and it is now open to public visitation.


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