The Beisteguis, a Spanish Basque colonial family that
made a vast fortune in the silver mines of Mexico, is a name that evokes the
splendorous living and art collecting of the early and mid XX century. Two of its members, uncle and nephew, followed divergent paths to strengthen the prestige
of the bloodline. Both were passionate
aesthetes and commited lovers of all things beautiful.
Carlos de Beistegui (the “de” was an ennobling prefix
added by them to permit a better entry into the world of elites) was a 13
year-old Mexican boy when he arrived in France with his wealthy parents in 1876.
As a youth, he pursued a career in painting under the guidance and friendship
of the painter Léon Bonnat, who counted among his pupils Sargeant and
Caillebotte. It soon became apparent that his creative aptitudes were limited
and he could aspire to nothing more than being a “peintre de dimanche”, a
derisive expression used by the French to designate somebody whose ambitions
exceed his potential. His artistic zeal turned
then to collecting and he soon amassed a substantial collection of coins and
medals, influenced no doubt by his predecessors mining activities and his
father’s formal appointment as Director of the Mexican Mint. But it is his
donation to the Louvre of an extraordinary collection of portraits that stands
out as an example of patronage and taste. The works acquired over the years
with the counsel of curators and art academics, include the elegant full length
portrait of “La Marquesa de Solana” by Goya, the Death of Didion by Rubens and
two Davids, all reflecting the exquisite discernement and predilections of the
collector. A presiding portrait by Ignacio Zuloaga of Carlos de Bestegui exuding
a solid but self-effacing bearing is the only XX century masterpiece of the
ensemble. It is rumored that the Prado Museum was offered the collection before
the Louvre but upon the insistence of the Spaniards that the portraits should
be hung chronologically and by schools rather that grouped, he opted for the
French museum.
When his nephew Carlos de Beistegui y De Iturbe was
born the prefixes were firmly established in the family name. Charlie, as he
was also known in the circles in which he moved, was the prototype of a certain
Latin American only at ease in
the company of real princesses. He boasted his friendship with King Alphonse
XIII of Spain and rolled the eyes when
he showed his visitors the numerous portraits of the Duchess of Alba that
populated his salons as if between them existed a degree of complicity that
words should not express. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he proceeded to
recreat around him the style and
possessions of those born to aristocracy and acquired in 1939 the Chateau de
Groussay, where he indulged his passion for all things neoclassical. In 1948 he
bought the Palazzo Labia in Venice for the modest sum to our eyes of 53.000 pounds
sterling. The stage was set for unfolding a flamboyant and extravagant
lifestyle and the admiration grew as fast as the comtempt many contemporaries
felt about him. When he sold Palazzo Labia to the Italian broadcasting
corporation, the RAI, it turned out that all the furniture and contents, except
for the Tiepolo frescoes were fake. His final claim to fame came with Le Bal
Oriental also known as Le Bal Beistegui a party extravaganza that he celebrated
at Palazzo Labia in 1951. It was because of the list of the invitees and the
lavish magnificence of the event that the party stands as a social record of a world
and a class that have long disspeared. The party can also be viewed as the
discovery by the mass media of the “beau monde” through the photo reportage of
Cecil Beaton. Charlie pursued to his very last day in January 1970 his lifelong
job of furnishing Groussay, the only decorative job of his life according to
one of his contemporaries. His reluctant
heir and nephew Juan “Johnny” de Beistegui chose to auction the château and
contents in 1999 ending the historic collection of the man who wanted to be
someone that he wasn’t and was what he did not want to be: a fantasist in a
world of blue bloods.
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