Etienne, Marquis de Ganay

Etienne Aimé de Ganay, 5th Marquis de Ganay (22 October 1833 – 1903) was a French aristocrat and art collector.

The Marquis de Ganay in 1868 when he was the Comte Etienne de Ganay, by James Tissot.

Early life

He was a son of Charles-Alexandre, Marquis de Ganay (1803–1881) and Élisa Calixte de Pourtalès (1810–1877),^[1] who inherited the Château de Luins in the Swiss Canton of Vaud.^[2] His elder brother, Louis Charles Maurice, was the 4th Marquis de Ganay and married Mathilde des Acres de l'Aigle (a direct descendant of the King Louis XV through his illegitimate son Charles de Vintimille);^[3] His younger brother, Jacques de Ganay, married Renée de Maillé de La Tour-Landry (a granddaughter of the Duke and Duchess of Maillé and Gen. Rainulphe d'Osmond).^[4]

His maternal grandfather was Count James-Alexandre de Pourtalès, a prominent banker and art collector who served as chamberlain to the King of Prussia Frederick William III.^[5] His paternal grandparents were Françoise Bonne de Virieu and Gen. Antoine-Charles de Ganay, 2nd Marquis de Ganay,^[5] a representative for Saône-et-Loire from 1810 to 1823.^[6][7][8]

Career

 

The Circle of the Rue Royale, by James Tissot, 1868.

 

Self-Portrait with Palette by Édouard Manet, 1879

Ganay, and his father were both featured in James Tissot's 1868 group portrait painting The Circle of the Rue Royale. The painting depicted the gathering of the Circle of the Rue Royale, a male club founded in 1852 who commissioned the work,^[9] and takes place on one of the balconies of the Hôtel de Coislin, overlooking the Place de la Concorde. Each of the twelve subjects paid 1,000 francs for the painting to be made.^[10] Others in the painting included Gaston, Marquis de Galliffet (known as an opponent to the 1871 Paris Commune), Prince Edmond de Polignac, the Comte Julien de Rochechouart, the Marquis René de Miramon, Baron Gaston de Saint-Maurice, Capt. Coleraine Vansittart, Baron Rodolphe Hottinguer, Marquis Alfred du Lau d'Allemans, Comte Alfred de La Tour-Maubourg, Charles Haas (who was a source for the character of Charles Swann in Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past).^[11]

In 1893, he became the 5th Marquis of Ganay following the death of his elder brother who died without male issue.^[5] Like his father and grandfather before him (who owned the famous Comte de Pourtalès Collection which was auctioned off in 1865), he was an art collector. In May 1910, his widow acquired Édouard Manet's 1879 Self-Portrait with Palette from the estate of Suzanne Manet, the artist's widow who had died in 1906. His heirs sold the painting to Jakob Goldschmidt in 1931.^[12][13][14]

The captain of La Korrigane, de Ganay also served as president of the Yacht Club de France, the oldest nautical club in France, and one of the most important yacht clubs in the world.^[15]

Personal life

In 1858,^[16] he was married to the American heiress and fellow art collector, Emily Ridgway (1838–1921).^[17] She was a daughter of John Jacob Ridgway of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and friend of writer Edith Wharton.^[18] Her aunt, Susanna Ridgway, a daughter of merchant Jacob Ridgway, was the second wife of Dr. John Rhea Barton.^[19] They bought the Château de Courances in 1895.^[20] Together, Ganay and his wife were the parents of:^[21]

• Marguerite de Ganay (1859–1940), who married Arthur O'Connor, a grandson of Arthur O'Connor (an Irish general in Napoleon's army), and the great-grandson of the Marquis de Condorcet.^[5]
• Charles Aimé Jean, 6th Marquis de Ganay (1861–1948),^[22] who married salonnière Berthe, Countess de Béhague^[23][24] He owned a copy of Salvator Mundi a painting thought to be by Leonardo da Vinci.^[25]
• Jacques André de Ganay, Count de Ganay (1863–1912), who married Jeanne le Marois (1870–1961), a daughter of Jean Polydor le Marois.^[26]
• Charlotte Gabrielle de Ganay (1864–1942), who married Thierry, Prince d'Hénin, a Senator of France for Vosges from 1909 to 1934.^[27]
• Gérard de Ganay (1869–1925), who married Zélie "Lily" Schneider (1872–1969).^[28][19]

The Marquis de Ganay died in 1903 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Jean who became the 6th Marquis de Ganay.^[5]

Descendants

Through his son Jean, he was a grandfather of Count Bernard de Ganay, who married Magdeleine Goüin.

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  His father, the Marquis de Ganay, by James Tissot, 1868.

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  Portrait of his mother, Élisa, c. 1830.

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  Photograph of his son, Jean de Ganay, 1911.

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  Illustration of his sons, André and Gérard de Ganay, by Georges Goursat.

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  The Comtesse Gérard de Ganay (née Lily Schneider), his daughter-in-law, by Ernest Hébert 1895.

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  His granddaughter, Solange de Ganay, Comtesse Charles de Breteuil, 1932.

References

1. Saint-Allais, Nicolas Viton de (1816). Nobiliaire universel de France ou recueil général des généalogies historiques des maisons nobles de ce royaume (in French). Au bureau du nobiliaire universel de France. p. 23. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
2. "L'histoire du Château – Chateau de Luins". chateaudeluins.ch (in French). Chateau de Luins. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
3. Bois, François-Alexandre Aubert de La Chesnaye Des (1863). Dictionnaire de la noblesse, contenant les généalogies, l'histoire et la chronologie des familles nobles de France,... (in French). Schlesinger Frères. p. 83. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
4. "JOHN SINGER SARGENT 1856 – 1925 MADAME LA COMTESSE JACQUES DE GANAY". sothebys.com. Sotheby's. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
5. Melville Amadeus Henry Douglas Heddle de La Caillemotte de Massue de Ruvigny Ruvigny and Raineval (9th marquis of) (1914). The Titled Nobility of Europe: An International Peerage, Or "Who's Who", of the Sovereigns, Princes and Nobles of Europe. Harrison & Sons. p. 686. Retrieved 11 May 2020.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
6. Robinet, Jean-François (1898). Dictionnaire historique et biographique de la Révolution et de l'Empire, 1789-1815 (in French). Librairie historique de la Révolution et de l'Empire. p. 7. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
7. Memoires de Société éduenne des lettres, sciences et arts (in French). 1892. p. 58. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
8. Grimoard, Philippe-Henri comte de (1782). Histoire Des Quatre Dernieres Campagnes Du Maréchal de Turenne en 1672, 1673, 1674 & 1675: Enrichie de Cartes Et de Plans Topographiques, Dédiée Et Présentée Au Roi, Par M. Le Chevalier de Beaurain, Géographe de Sa Majesté, & Son Pensionnaire (in French). Chez le Chevalier de Beaurain. p. 217. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
9. Blom, Philipp (2010). A Wicked Company: The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment. Basic Books. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-465-02278-6. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
10. Proust, Marcel (2017). Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit. Gesamtausgabe: Bände 1–8: Vollständige Textausgabe mit Kommentarband (in German). Reclam Verlag. p. 919. ISBN 978-3-15-961800-5. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
11. Brevik-Zender, Heidi (2015). Fashioning Spaces: Mode and Modernity in Late-Nineteenth-Century Paris. University of Toronto Press. p. 299. ISBN 978-1-4426-6981-9. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
12. Manet, Edouard; Cachin, Françoise; Moffett, Charles S.; Bareau, Juliet Wilson; N.Y.), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York (1983). Manet, 1832-1883: Galeries Nationales Du Grand Palais, Paris, April 22-August 8, 1983, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, September 10-November 27, 1983. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 407. ISBN 978-0-87099-359-6. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
13. Ganay (Cte.), Etienne de. Yacht club de France. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
14. Rosenberg, Pierre (1987). French Paintings 1500-1825, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. ISBN 978-0-88401-055-5. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
15. Debaene, Vincent (2014). Far Afield: French Anthropology between Science and Literature. University of Chicago Press. p. 331. ISBN 978-0-226-10723-3. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
16. Mension-Rigau, Eric (2011). L'ami du prince: Journal inédit d'Alfred de Gramont (1892-1915) (in French). Fayard. p. 17. ISBN 978-2-213-66502-3. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
17. "Marquise de Ganay". The New York Times. 19 September 1921. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
18. Gilder, Cornelia Brooke (2017). Edith Wharton's Lenox. Arcadia Publishing. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-62585-788-0. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
19. Jordan, John Woolf (2004). Colonial And Revolutionary Families Of Pennsylvania. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-8063-5239-8. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
20. Adams, Henry; Levenson, Jacob C.; Samuels, Ernest (1982). The Letters of Henry Adams. Harvard University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-674-52686-0. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
21. Jordan, John Woolf (1911). Colonial Families of Philadelphia. Lewis Publishing Company. p. 160. ISBN 9785880233557. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
22. "Marquis De Ganay". The New York Times. 20 February 1948. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
23. Kemp, Martin; Simon, Robert B.; Dalivalle, Margaret (2019). Leonardo's Salvator Mundi and the Collecting of Leonardo in the Stuart Courts. Oxford University Press. p. 358. ISBN 978-0-19-254329-5. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
24. Times, Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph To the New York (15 June 1913). "PARIS ARISTOCRATS IN DANCE PAGEANT; Marquise de Ganay's Splendid Entertainment for Rumanian Princess". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
25. Snow-Smith, Joanne. The Salvator Mundi of Leonardo Da Vinci, Arte Lombarda, no. 50, 1978, pp. 69–81. JSTOR
26. Pandectes françaises: recueil de jurisprudence et de législation (in French). Chevalier-Marescq. 1886. p. 253. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
27. "COUNT OF ALSACE DIES IN PARIS AT 80; Represented the Vosges in the Senate Since 1909 -- Fought at Sedan as a Boy". The New York Times. 25 February 1934. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
28. Mension-Rigau, Eric (2015). Singulière noblesse: L'héritage nobiliaire dans la culture française contemporaine (in French). Fayard. p. 213. ISBN 978-2-213-67292-2. Retrieved 11 May 2020.