Maurice Ephrussi

Maurice Ephrussi

Maurice Ephrussi (first from left) with M. du Bos, Siegfried Lehndorff and Georg von Lehndorff as members of a referee committee at a horse-racing track in Baden-Baden in 1902
Born (1849-11-18)18 November 1849
Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
Died 29 October 1916(1916-10-29) (aged 66)
Paris, France
Residence Paris, Monte Carlo, Reux, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
Occupation Financier, Racehorse owner/breeder
Board member of Banque Ephrussi
Religion Judaism
Spouse(s) Béatrice de Rothschild[1]
Children Mathilde Elisabeth Ephrussi de Rothschild Cohen
Parent(s) Charles Joachim Ephrussi (1792-1864) & Henriette Halperson (1822-1888)
Relatives Siblings:
Léon, Ignaz, Michel, Thérèse, Marie
Maurice Ephrussi's Prix de Diane winner Serpolette II at Chantilly

Maurice Ephrussi (18 November 1849 – 29 October 1916) was a French banker and horsebreeder.

Early life

Maurice Ephrussi was born on November 18, 1849 in Odessa, Ukraine. He was a member of the Ephrussi family. His father, Charles Joachim Ephrussi, was a trader in wheat who founded a bank, Ephrussi & Co.. His mother was Henriette Halperson. His elder half-brother, Ignace von Ephrussi, founded a branch of the family bank in Vienna, Austria.

Career

With his older brother, Michel Ephrussi, Maurice co-founded a branch of Ephrussi & Co. in Paris, France.

Equestrian interests

Maurice Ephrussi and his brother Michel were both involved in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing. Maurice owned Haras du Gazon, a breeding farm in Bazoches-au-Houlme, Orne, Normandy where he bred the outstanding runner and champion sire, Perth.[2] Perth's sire was the Ephrussi stallion War Dance who also sired the brilliant filly, Roxelane.[3]

In the 1860s, Maurice Ephrussi had acquired Château de Reux near Reux, Calvados located about 90 kilometres (56 mi) northeast of Haras du Gazon.

Horses raced by Maurice Ephrussi won a number of important races in France and England including the:

Haras du Gazon was later purchased by American horseman, Herman B. Duryea.[2]

Personal life

Ephrussi married Béatrice de Rothschild, the daughter of Alphonse de Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild banking family of France.[4] The wedding took place on June 5, 1883 in Paris.[5] They maintained a home in Paris, a villa in Monte Carlo called "Rose de France", and in the early 1900s built Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

Maurice and Béatrice Ephrussi were avid art collectors and his cousin, Charles Ephrussi, proprietor of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in Paris, was a patron of the Impressionists.

Death

Maurice Ephrussi died in 1916. His widow lived the rest of her life at their residence in Monte Carlo where she died in 1934.[6]

Notes

  1. ↑ The marriage quickly turned to disaster for Beatrice as Maurice was a big gambler and in 1904 his debts amounted to more than 12 million gold francs, the equivalent of 30 million euros today. Worried about the future, the Rothschild family decided to take Maurice to court to demand a separation. They won the case and, in June 1904, after 21 years of marriage, Béatrice de Rothschild and Maurice Ephrussi were separated.
  2. 1 2 Perth
  3. ↑ Roxelane
  4. ↑ "A Union of Millions. The Approaching Marriage of a Daughter of the Rothschilds in Paris.". Chicago Inter Ocean. Chicago, Illinois. June 7, 1883. p. 12. Retrieved December 9, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ The Talk of Gay Paris
  6. ↑ La Villa Ephrussi de Rotshchild

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/2/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.