James Pourtales-Gorgier

James-Alexandre de Pourtalès, Comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier (28 November 1776 – 24 March 1855) was a Swiss-French banker, diplomat and art collector.

Early life James-Alexandre Pourtalès was born on 28 November 1776 in Neuchâtel, Principality of Neuchâtel, into the Pourtalès family, a large family of Protestant financiers. a banker in Naples who amassed a fortune in commerce and was made a count by King Frederick William II. Among his siblings were Louis de Pourtalès (husband of Sophie d'Audanger) and Frédéric de Pourtalès (husband of Marie Louise de Castellane and grandfather of Friedrich von Pourtalès). and Marguerite de Luze (who was the younger sister of his maternal great-grandfather). His maternal grandparents were the former Marianne-Françoise Warney (a niece of Daniel Roguin of Yverdon) and Baron Jean-Jacques III de Luze, a prosperous textile manufacturer at Colombier and were both friends of writer and philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau described his grandfather, Jean-Jacques de Luze, whom he had been friends with for many years, as "having a cold manner but a warm heart."

Career

In 1813, he acquired the seigneury of Gorgier, which he added to the family name, from Charles Henry, Vicomte de Gorgier. He served as Chamberlain to the King of Prussia and was awarded the title of Count on 20 November 1814 by King Frederick William III, who ruled Prussia during the Napoleonic Wars and the end of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1825, he donated a mummy and coffin he acquired from the Thedenat-Duvent sale, to the Berlin Museum. In February and March 1865, ten years after his death, his collection was auctioned off in Paris in accordance with his will. The majority of his collection was photographed and published in a large folio by Goupil & Cie. The Laughing Cavalier was purchased by the Marquess of Hertford (who outbid Baron de Rothschild). Lord Amherst bought some of the important Egyptian objects. Sir Charles Newton spent 60,919 francs on bronzes and vases for the British Museum, and 47,000 francs on Giustiniani's Apollo.

In 1806, he purchased the Château de Bandeville in Saint-Cyr-sous-Dourdan where, in 1833, he had the English-style park redeveloped by landscape designer Louis-Sulpice Varé, in one of the first known works. Today, Varé is known for his French landscape gardens at several famous chateaux, including the Château de Châtenay-en-France, and the Bois de Boulogne park.

In 1809, he also acquired Château de Luins in the Swiss Canton of Vaud for 150,000 Swiss francs. The estate passed to his eldest daughter and her husband, the Marquis de Ganay, and their family.

Personal life On 12 June 1809, he was married to Anne Henriette de Palézieux-Falconnet (1792–1836) in Neuchâtel. His wife was a daughter of banker Jean Louis de Palézieux-Falconnet and the former Anna Hunter, an American who was the sister of William Hunter, a U.S. Senator from Newport, Rhode Island. His wife's sister, Eliza Augusta, married the American archeologist and artist John Izard Middleton. Together, they were the parents of:

Descendants Through his eldest daughter Élisa, he was a grandfather of General Jacques de Ganay (1843–1899), who married Renée de Maillé de La Tour-Landry, the third daughter of Jaquelin Armand Charles, Duc de Maillé (son of the Duke and Duchess of Maillé) and his wife Jeanne d'Osmond (daughter of Gen. Rainulphe d'Osmond).

Through his son Henri, he was a grandfather of Count Arthur de Pourtalès (1844–1928), a diplomat who twice married Americans.