Charles Ephrussi

Charles Ephrussi (also Charles Ephrussi and Charles Ephrussi, born December 24, 1849 in Odessa, † September 30, 1905 in Paris) was a banker, art historian and editor of the prestigious art magazine Gazette des Beaux -Arts. His publications include work on Albrecht Dürer and Paul Baudry. As an art collector, he was one of the earliest supporters of the painter of French Impressionism.

Family

The Ephrussi family had settled as a Greek Sephardic Jews in the then Russian Odessa and were in the 19th century in European trading and banking business operates. Charles Joachim Ephrussi (1792-1864), the grandfather of Charles Ephrussi, laid with a successful grain trading the foundation for the family fortune. His eldest son Leonid (also Léon to 1820-1877 ) founded in Odessa Bankhaus Leonid Ephrussi & Co, which existed until 1882. From his marriage to Minna Landau (1824-1888) Charles Ephrussi emerged as the third of four children. The family moved in 1871 to Paris, where the brothers of his father, Michel ( 1845-1914 ) and Maurice Ephrussi ( 1849-1916 ), along with Jules Ephrussi ( 1846-1915 ), the oldest brother of Charles Ephrussi, the Bank Ephrussi & Co justified. . This bank was the Paris branch of 1856 by Ignaz von Ephrussi, another brother of the father, founded in Vienna Bankhaus Ephrussi & Co.. Another bank branch was in London. The French branch of the family had close business and friendly relations with other wealthy banking families like the Reinach and the Rothschilds. Thus, the daughter of Charles Ephrussi sister Betty (1852-1873), Thérèse married Fanny May, the historian Théodore Reinach and the uncle Maurice Ephrussi, the heiress Béatrice de Rothschild. The lawyer Carl Bernstein was a cousin and the playwright Henri Bernstein the son of a cousin of Charles Ephrussi.

Life

Born in Odessa Charles Ephrussi studied in his native city and then in Vienna, before he settled in Paris. He initially worked in the banking house of the family. In 1875 he began his work in the prestigious art magazine Gazette des Beaux -Arts. At first he devoted himself to the Renaissance and published in 1876 a work on Jacopo de ' Barbari. He then wrote several works on Albrecht Dürer. In addition, he began to build an extensive art collection, in the next to Renaissance art, 18th century, East Asian art and crafts were also works by contemporary artists.

Charles Ephrussi frequented the literary salons of Princess Mathilde, Madeleine Lemaire and Geneviève Halévy, wife of Georges Bizet. Along with the art collector Gustave Dreyfus, the Comtesse Greffulhe and Princess Mathilde, he organized art exhibitions and concerts, where, for example, works of Richard Wagner were listed.

Under the influence of his friends, the art critic Théodore Duret and the collector Charles Deudon to Ephrussi turned to the French painters of impressionism from 1880. He has published in the Gazette des Beaux -Arts benevolent article about their works and built a collection with their pictures on. As an anecdote is narrated that Ephrussi on the acquisition of Édouard Manet's asparagus bundles instead of the required 800 francs paid 1000 francs and Manet then painted a smaller image with a single asparagus spear and handed it to Ephrussi with the words: "In her collar was missing one. " Followed works by Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Pierre- Auguste Renoir and other Impressionists, with whom Ephrussi decorated his apartment in a posh mansion in the Avenue d' Iéna No. 11. During this time the poet Jules Laforgue worked as assistant Ephrussi. He came on the recommendation of Gustave Kahn, and Paul Bourget Ephrussi and is portrayed together with him on Pierre- Auguste Renoir known group portrait The Luncheon of the Boating Party. Furthermore, later by Jean Patricot was a drawing and Louise Abbéma a pastel picture with the portrait of Charles Ephrussi.

1882 visited Ephrussi Berlin Cousin Carl Bernstein and his wife Felicia Paris. Ephrussi advised his relatives in matters of art and gave them the purchase of works by Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro and other Impressionists. These were the first works of Impressionist painting, which came to the German Reich and had significant influence on the local art and other collectibles. In particular, Max Liebermann was inspired by these works and became friends later on with Charles Ephrussi.

Ephrussi took over 1885 shares in the Gazette des Beaux Arts, and continued to write articles for the Journal. In addition, he published in 1887 a biography of Paul Baudry. From 1894 Ephrussi acted as editor of the Gazette des Beaux Arts. Under his leadership, significant authors like Gustave Geffroy, Hippolyte Taine, Paul Bourget and Bernard Berenson worked. In 1900, Marcel Proust, published in the Gazette des Beaux Arts, an article about John Ruskin. Proust took Ephrussi, next to Charles Haas, later as a model for the fictional character of Charles Swann in In Search of Lost Time.

Charles Ephrussi was life unmarried and left no children. He was the French Legion of Honour in 1882 and since 1903 Ritter officer. Charles Ephrussi died in 1905 in Paris.

Painting the former collection Charles Ephrussi

Gustave Moreau: Jason and Medea, about 1865. Musée d' Orsay, Paris

Claude Monet: The Bathers of La Grenouillère, 1869. National Gallery, London

Edgar Degas: General Mellinet and Chief Rabbi Astruc, in 1871. Ville de Geradmer

Edgar Degas: Edmond Duranty, in 1879. Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum

Édouard Manet: Constantin Guys, in 1879. private Collection

Édouard Manet: Asparagus bunch, 1880. Wallraf- Richartz Museum, Cologne

Claude Monet: View of Vetheuil, 1880. Metropolitan Museum, New York

Gustave Moreau: Galatée, about 1880. Musée d' Orsay, Paris

Pierre- Auguste Renoir: On the Terrace, 1881. Art Institute, Chicago

Edgar Degas: At the milliner, 1881. Metropolitan Museum, New York

Alfred Sisley: Moret -sur -Loing, 1892. private Collection

Works

• Notes biographiques sur Jacopo de Barbarj dit le maitre au caducée, painter - engraver vénitien de la fin du siècle XVe. Jouaust, Paris 1876.
• Etude sur le triptyque d' Albert Durer, dit le tableau d' autel de Heller. Jouaust, Paris 1876. Both aforementioned works in German language: Charles Ephrussi: About Jacobo de Barbarj and Hellersche altarpiece by Dürer: a response to Prof. Dr. Moriz Thausing in Vienna. Fromme, Vienna 1877.

• German translation by Elisabeth Baroness von Cramer -Klett: Paul Baudry 's life and works. Knorr & Hirth, Munich 1891.