Item | Waddesdon Manor

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artist or maker

Winckler, Jean-Marc (b.1952)

Date

1992-1996

commissioned in 1992, completed in 1996

Place of production

France

Medium

oil on canvas

Type of object

paintings

Accession number

11.1996

Large rectangular oil painting depicting 43 Rothschild houses. At lower centre, at the foot of a tree, there is an oval cartouche depicting the Rothschild family's original house, Grüneschild House, in Frankfurt's Jewish ghetto. The portraits of Mayer Amschel (1743-1812), his wife Gutle, and their five sons, framed with asymmetrical rocaille cartouches, appear above on the tree trunk. The tree grows along the top and down the sides of the canvas. There are 42 oval cartouches with acanthus scrolls arranged throughout the tree containing small views of 42 Rothschild houses identified by a number above and flanked by birds, fruit and flowers. The Rothschild coat of arms appears at upper centre, flanked by a lion and unicorn rampant and surmounted by a crown.

To either side of the tree there are several mythological figures: on the left, a nymph, Diana, and Apollo playing a violin. A greyhound dog appears to the right and rabbits in the foreground. There is a basket of fruit and vegetables in front of Apollo. There is a still life of classical vases and architectural fragments, a gold ewer, silverware, material, an artist's palette and brushes, an open book of music, flowers, a sculpted head and melons, to the left and right of the lowest cartouche on the tree trunk. To the right of the tree, there is a circle of five naked and partially draped putti playing with flowers and fruit in a cornucopia. To the right, there are three standing women in classical dress and jewels, The Three Graces, and two naked putti, one with wings. Behind there is parkland, with a lake and trees with snowy mountains in the distance.

The houses depicted are as follows, from upper left to upper right:

First row:

1. Gap

2. Exbury

3. Ascott House

4. 5 Hamilton Place, London

5. Halton House

6. Tring

7. Ashton Wold

8. Ferme du Coteau (Villa Strassburger)

Second Row:

9. Manoir Sans Souci

10. Pregny

11. Gunthersburg

12. Konigstein

13. Mentmore Towers

14. Ashton Clinton

15. 148 Piccadillly, London

16. Petit - Mouton

17. Chateau de la Muette

Third Row:

18. 41 Fauborg Saint Honore

19. Ferrieres

20. Villa Acton Pignatelli

21. 15 Untermankai, Frankfurt-am-Main

22. Gunnersbury

23. 8-10 Bockenheimer, Frankfurt-am-Main

24. Schillersdorf

25. Gruneburg

26. Les Fontaines

Fourth Row (with gap in centre):

27. Armainvilliers

28. Boulogne

29. Waddesdon

30. Chalet des Oyats

Fifth Row (with gap in centre):

31. Laversine

32. 19 Rue Lafitte, Paris

33. Eythrope

34. 14-16 Theresianumgasse, Austria

Sixth Row (with gap in centre):

35. 23 Avenue Marigny, Paris

36. Cannes

37. Grasse: villa Victoria

38. Reichenau, Austria

Seventh Row (with gap in centre):

39. 11 rue Berryer, Paris

40. Chateau Lafitte

41. Steinbach, Austria

42. 24-26 Heugasse, Vienna

Commentary

Forty-two roundels containing depictions of Rothschild houses built in the 19th and 20th centuries, nestle in the branches of this architectural family tree. It is the largest work of the Paris-based architectural painter, Jean-Marc Winckler, more familiar with miniature painting. It was commissioned for the newly refurbished Goodwood Room celebrating the good works of the Rothschild family.

At the base of the tree is the modest house in the Jewish ghetto where the founders of the Rothschild dynasty, Amschel and Gutle, lived with their five sons, also depicted on the trunk of the tree. These sons, known as the 'five arrows', established the network of Rothschild banks throughout Europe in the late 18th-century. The houses built by these brothers and their descendents, many now destroyed, are meticulously rendered above, identified by numbers. Waddesdon Manor, the home of Baron Ferdinand de Rotschild, appears at centre right, above Eythrope, the pavillion constructed nearby by his sister Miss Alice de Rothschild. Below Eythrope is Alice's villa in Grasse.

The classical figures around the tree include Apollo, Diana and the Three Graces, representing the patronage, philanthropy and grace of the family, as well as allegorical symbols of Painting and Sculpture, and examples of some of the objets d'art collected by the Rothschilds. These characters recall mythological figures from 17th-century French paintings by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and Claude Lorraine (c. 1600-1682), artists influential for Winckler. As a young artist, Winckler spent time in Rome restoring Renaissance frescoes and painting scenes of the city reminiscent of 18th-century French artists such as Charles-Louis Clérisseau (1721-1820).

Winckler had previously painted several works for Baroness Liliane de Rothschild who also came up with the idea of using houses to represent the family tree. It took Winckler 2,200 hours to complete all the extravagant detail, a style he likened to the Rothschild houses of the 19th-century, crowded with the finest works of art. The commission reflects the continued importance of renovating and re-interpreting the historic houses of the Rothschild family, at the heart of Waddesdon's evolving collection. The painting, celebrating the unique status of Waddesdon's survival and accessibility amongst the family's houses, would have delighted Waddesdon's original creator, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, who feared the house would not continue after his lifetime.

Phillippa Plock, 2012

Physical description

Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)

1535 x 2960 (approx.)

Signature & date

signed and dated, lower right: J M Winckler 1996

History

Provenance

Comissioned by a Rothschild Family Trust in 1992.

Collection

Waddesdon (Rothschild Foundation)
On loan since 1996

Bibliography

Rachel Simhon, Houseproud, Daily Telegraph, 11 May 1996, 20-23 {Magazine}; ill.

Other details

Subject person

Mayer Amschel Rothschild, Pictured
Gutle von Rothschild, Pictured
Baron James de Rothschild, Pictured
Carl de Rothschild, Pictured
Salomon von Rothschild, Pictured
Nathan Mayer Rothschild, Pictured
Amschel Mayer Rothschild, Pictured

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