Baroness Elie de Rothschild

Patron of the arts with a passion for Marie Antoinette

Liliane Elisabeth Victoire Fould-Springer: born Paris 11 May 1916; married 1942 Baron Elie de Rothschild (one son, two daughters): died Royaumont, France 17 February 2003.

Liliane de Rothschild, wife of Baron Elie de Rothschild, of the Rothschild banking family, was one of the most generous and discerning patrons in the world of the arts in France. For over 50 years, "la Baronne Elie" was a rallying point for cultural activities in Paris.

Her great passion was the tragic figure of the French queen Marie Antoinette, guillotined during the French Revolution, about whom she was an expert, willingly sharing her knowledge with, and showing her impressive collection of memorabilia to, biographers of the queen such as Antonia Fraser. This passion led her into the world of Versailles, where she became a guiding light of the influential Société des Amis de Versailles, of which she was a vice-president until the time of her death.

Liliane de Rothschild was the moving spirit behind the Marie Antoinette exhibition at the palace of Versailles in 1955, when a vast quantity of furniture, paintings, and objects dispersed at the Revolution returned briefly and evocatively to their place of origin. The exhibition was important in another respect. It gave impetus to the idea that Versailles could partially be re-furnished, an enterprise that has been achieved successfully over the years, again often due to Liliane de Rothschild's energy and persistence.

She and her husband Elie made a number of donations to public museums and collections, principally to the Louvre, Musée Carnavalet and Versailles. In France she sat on the powerful Conseil des Musées which advises the state on the purchase of works of art. She was also involved with many charitable bodies. In 1990 she was promoted an officer of the Légion d'honneur (she had been appointed Chevalier in 1974), and shortly before her death she received the insignia of commander in the Ordre des Arts et Lettres.

She was born Liliane Elisabeth Victoire Fould-Springer, the youngest of three daughters of the banker Baron Eugène Fould and his wife Mitzi Springer, only child and heiress of the Austro-Hungarian industrialist Baron Gustav Springer. Liliane's eldest sister, Hélène – known as "Bubbles" – married the Spanish diplomat Eduardo Propper de Callejón and became a gifted painter using the pseudonym Praday. Her other sister, Thérèse, in 1934 married the writer and critic Alan Pryce-Jones, who later became editor of The Times Literary Supplement. The Fould-Springers lived in style in Vienna and Paris, with estates also in western Hungary. With this background it was hardly surprising that Liliane Fould-Springer became completely European in outlook and experience.

The Fould-Springers lost their estates in the Nazi and Communist expropriations. With the fall of France in 1940 Liliane moved to Spain with "Bubbles" and later to Cannes in the so-called "free zone" under the Vichy regime. There in 1942 she got married by proxy to Baron Elie de Rothschild (of the French branch of the banking family), who was a prisoner of war in Germany, first at Lübeck and then in Colditz. They were reunited in 1945 and settled in Paris.

There, at the magnificent Hôtel de Masseran, an 18th-century masterpiece designed by Brogniart, and later at another historic house in the rue de Courcelles, Liliane de Rothschild brought together distinguished visitors from many countries. Her houses were living, breathing, collections of art in the distinctive Rothschild manner, encompassing the modern and contemporary as well as the old masters. A. Serebriakov, the Russian émigré painter of interiors, beautifully captured the atmosphere of the Hôtel de Masseran in its heyday. Liliane de Rothschild and her husband entertained guests superbly there and at Château-Lafite, at Royaumont, their country retreat near Paris, and in their London house.

Flair, style, wit, determination and a gift for friendship were the qualities readily associated with Liliane de Rothschild. No effort was too great for her.

John Rogister