She was everything expected of a fabulously wealthy woman of the 19th century: musical, well read, a polyglot, an accomplished horse rider. But she was also everything unexpected: independent, commanding, fearless, unmarried.
Alice de Rothschild, a member of the powerful European banking dynasty, was an avid art collector and creator of spectacular gardens at her residences in England and France. Yet her legacy has been overshadowed by the men of her family.
Now, to mark the centenary of her death, she is the focus of new exhibitions at Waddesdon Manor, the extraordinary country retreat in the style of a French Renaissance chateau that was built in Buckinghamshire by her brother Ferdinand and inherited by Alice after his death.
“She was an extraordinary woman who stands out in an age dominated by men, intelligent, exacting, discerning and independent, and whose spirit lives on in a place which may have been created by her brother but which she made very much her own,” said Pippa Shirley, the director of collections and gardens at Waddesdon.
Alice’s Wonderlands examines the stamp she put on the house and grounds, reflecting her tastes and attention to detail, during her 24 years of ownership. Works of art have been brought out of storage, and rare early colour photographs have been used to recreate Alice’s personal sitting room where she displayed her favourite objects, including Sèvres porcelain vases and a 17th-century Savonnerie carpet.
The exhibition’s curators have drawn on 150 art dealers’ receipts, found in 2016, giving details of Alice’s acquisitions between 1904 and 1918. The documents survived Alice’s instructions that her personal papers be destroyed after her death.
Porcelain decorated with birds – Alice visited the rococo aviary at Waddesdon twice a day when in residence – and a row of portraits of chubby, overdressed infants are gathered with other artworks in a specially created exhibition room. Another room contains photographs of family and close female friends, correspondence, sketchbooks and estate management records.
Alice was a perfectionist, issuing detailed instructions about every aspect of Waddesdon. She specified that porcelain should be cleaned in silence, the method of storing objects when not on display, and which type of fertiliser should be used by her army of gardeners.
She had no compunction about telling guests not to touch her treasures, or to forbid smoking in most rooms in the house. Queen Victoria, who visited Alice’s estate in Grasse, in the south of France, is said to have referred to her as “the all-powerful”. Her housekeeping regime, known as “Miss Alice’s rules”, became the basis of National Trust conservation practises.
Mia Jackson, the curator of decorative arts at Waddesdon, said Alice was single-minded, fearless and unconfined by social expectations. “She didn’t seem to feel as though she ought to get married, and she did what she wanted to do.” When she took over Waddesdon, “she wanted to honour the memory of her brother, but she should never have been eclipsed by it.”
Alice was born in Frankfurt in 1847, and spent some of her childhood in Vienna. After the death of her mother when she was 12, Alice spent several years shuttling between relatives before moving to England at 19. She and Ferdinand lived next door to one another on London’s Piccadilly, and they bought adjacent estates in Buckinghamshire.
Alice built Eythrope, next to Waddesdon, as a “day retreat” after being advised by doctors not to sleep near water. Guests at Waddesdon’s lavish weekend parties would visit Eythrope to admire its beautiful gardens. The first world war saw the grand country estate lifestyle in decline; Alice died four years after the war ended. Waddesdon was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1957.
Alice’s Wonderlands is open Wednesdays to Sundays until 30 October.
