James Mayer de Rothschild

James Mayer de Rothschild (1792–1868) – German-French banker, progenitor of the French branch of the Rothschild family. In 1824, he married his niece, the Vienna-born Betty von Rothschild. The couple were among the most important Parisian patrons of the arts; among the artists closest to them were Chopin, Rossini, Balzac and Delacroix. Influential, wealthy and highly esteemed, James Rothschild was buried in Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, to where his coffin was accompanied by thousands of mourners.