The Lost Portrait of Gutle Rothschild

Abstract

The lost portrait of the matriarch of the Rothschild family, Gutle Rothschild (1735-1849), offers a window not only into the lives of the Rothschilds, but into the lives of Jewish women of the late 18th and early 19th century. The artist Oppenheim was affiliated with the Rothschild family for close to fifty years, and during that period executed a large number of commissions for them. It is possible to compare his extant works with this painting, which disappeared during World War II. The article examines what can be gleaned from the painting about its subjects and commissioners, as well as probes the question of the changing roles and views of the Jewish woman at the end of the 19^th century.