Jules Bache


Jules Semon Bache was an American banker, art collector and philanthropist.

Early life

Julius Bache was born to a Jewish family in New York City. His father, Semon Bache , emigrated to the United States from his native Nuremberg, Bavaria, settling in New York City where he started the glassmaking firm Semon Bache & Company.

Career

In 1881, he started work as a cashier at Leopold Cahn & Co., a stockbrokerage firm founded by his uncle. In 1886, he was made a minority partner and in 1892 took full control of the business, renaming it J. S. Bache & Co. Jules Bache built the company into one of the top brokerage houses in the United States, outranked only by Merrill Lynch. In the process, he became an immensely wealthy individual, a patron of the arts, and a philanthropist.
During World War I, Jules Bache donated money to the American Field Service in France and his wife was the honorary treasurer of the "War Babies' Cradle," a charity that provided aid for mothers and children in distress in war-torn Northern France and Belgium to provide them with food, clothing, heating fuel and medical care.
Jules Bache was a shareholder of a number of prominent corporations and sat on the board of directors of many of them. Among his personal holdings, Bache had sizeable interests in Canadian mining companies. His equity in these companies were held by his Bahamas based corporation that allowed him to legally avoid some of the high personal U.S. surtaxes, a fact which he would be publicly criticized for as a result of the Federal investigations during the 1930s into the causes of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Bache, however, believed that high taxation was a hindrance to economic growth and published a booklet titled "Release business from the slavery of taxation." A major shareholder in Dome Mines Limited, Bache served as company president from 1919 until 1942 and was Chairman of the Board at the time of his passing. After the brokerage firm of Dillon, Read & Co. acquired the Dodge Brothers Automobile Company in 1923, Jules Bache acquired a substantial position in Chrysler Corporation.
A supporter of American theatre and Broadway, in 1941 Jules Bache helped found the New York branch of the Escholier Club.

Personal life and death

Jules Bache died in 1944 in Palm Beach, Florida and was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York. His tomb is a replica of the Trajan's Kiosk at Philae. In 1927, his daughter, Kathryn Bache Miller, married the theatrical producer Gilbert Miller, in Paris, France. His granddaughter, Muriel Bache Richards, married Francis Warren Pershing, son of General John J. Pershing.
He told The Literary Digest his name was pronounced Baitch, "A rhyme with aitch."

Art collection

In addition to his high profile in the business world, Jules Bache would also become well known for his art collecting that received much press attention in 1929 when he purchased the portrait of "Giuliano de Medici," then attributed to Raphael. He would acquire numerous other important works including those by or attributed to Rembrandt, Titian, Albrecht Dürer, Diego Velázquez, Gerard David, Giovanni Bellini, and Sandro Botticelli, amongst others. In 1937 he opened his magnificent art collection to the public, and in 1943 donated some of his works to the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Bache was a major donor to the Department of Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the time of his death in 1944, most of his picture collection – up to that time gifted to the Jules Bache Foundation, was given to the Museum; the remaining works of art from his estate from his house at 814 Fifth Avenue were sold at auction. Presumably his portrait by Austrian artist Wilhelm Viktor Krausz was retained by one of Bache's daughters.
imagetitlepainterdateaccession numberThe Met url
:d:Q19911550|Madonna and Child with SaintsGiovanni Bellini49.7.1
:d:Q19905199|Madonna and ChildWorkshop of Giovanni Bellini151049.7.2
:d:Q19906042|Portrait of a Young ManJacometto Veneziano49.7.3
:d:Q19912464|The Coronation of the VirginFollower of Botticelli1500s49.7.4
:d:Q3842407|Madonna LentiCarlo Crivelli147249.7.5
:d:Q19905091|Portrait of a Woman:d:Q3842992|Master of the Nativity of Castello1450s49.7.6
:d:Q15089686|Francesco Sassetti and His Son TeodoroDomenico Ghirlandaio1488s49.7.7
:d:Q19913069|Descent from the CrossGirolamo da Cremona49.7.8
:d:Q3842542|Madonna and Child Enthroned with Two AngelsFilippo Lippi1440s49.7.9
:d:Q19911420|Madonna and ChildFilippino Lippi1483s49.7.10
:d:Q19912247|Rodolfo Gonzaga Style of Andrea Mantegna1500s49.7.11
:d:Q19911650|Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of NemoursCopy after Raphael1600s49.7.12
:d:Q19911566|Madonna and ChildLuca Signorelli49.7.13
:d:Q19906163|Portrait of a ManLambert Sustris49.7.14
Madonna and ChildTitian151049.7.15
Venus and AdonisTitian156049.7.16
:d:Q19911686|The Flight into EgyptCosimo Tura49.7.17
:d:Q19911721|Virgin and ChildWorkshop of Dieric Bouts147549.7.18
Portrait of a CarthusianPetrus Christus144649.7.19
:d:Q19911559|The Nativity with Donors and Saints Jerome and LeonardGerard David49.7.20a–c
:d:Q19911632|The Rest on the Flight into EgyptGerard David1513s49.7.21
:d:Q19904832|Virgin and ChildWorkshop of Hans Memling149049.7.22
:d:Q19911463|Young Woman with a PinkHans Memling148549.7.23
:d:Q19905218|Portrait of a Man in a TurbanNetherlandish Painter1460s49.7.24
Anthony van Dyck self portrait Anthony van Dyck162049.7.25
:d:Q3937658|Portrait of Robert Rich, second earl of WarwickAnthony van Dyck163449.7.26
:d:Q19911413|Portrait of an Italian WomanGerman painter1600s49.7.27
:d:Q19911434|Portrait of a Man Workshop of Hans Holbein the Younger153549.7.28
:d:Q19911567|Derick Berck of CologneHans Holbein153649.7.29
:d:Q19911475|Portrait of a Young WomanWorkshop of Hans Holbein the Younger154049.7.30
:d:Q19911425|Edward VI, When Duke of CornwallWorkshop of Hans Holbein the Younger154549.7.31
:d:Q19912654|Portrait of a Young Womanan anonymous Netherlandish painter153549.7.32
Portrait of Claes Duyst van VoorhoutFrans Hals163849.7.33
:d:Q17813326|Portrait of a Bearded Man with a RuffFrans Hals162549.7.34
:d:Q18649144|Portrait of Floris SoopRembrandt165449.7.35
:d:Q19905221|Man in a Red CloakRembrandt1650s49.7.36
:d:Q19911565|Christ with a StaffRembrandt166149.7.37
:d:Q18760714|The CuriousGerard ter Borch166049.7.38
:d:Q19912189|Portrait of a Young BoySébastien Bourdon1700s49.7.39
A Young Woman ReadingHan van Meegeren1926s49.7.40
Don Manuel Osorio de ZúñigaFrancisco de Goya178749.7.41
Portrait of a ManDiego Velázquez1630s49.7.42
:d:Q19911687|María Teresa, Infanta of SpainDiego Velázquez165149.7.43
:d:Q19912330|Charles de Cossé, Comte de BrissacCorneille de Lyon1600s49.7.44
:d:Q19912690|Portrait of a Man with a Black-Plumed HatCorneille de Lyon153549.7.45
:d:Q19911867|The Interrupted SleepFrançois Boucher175049.7.46
:d:Q19912342|Marie Rinteau, called Mademoiselle de VerrièresFrançois-Hubert Drouais176149.7.47
:d:Q19912333|Boy with a Black SpanielFrançois-Hubert Drouais49.7.48
:d:Q19911811|The Love LetterJean-Honoré Fragonard1770s49.7.49
:d:Q19911810|The CascadeJean-Honoré Fragonard49.7.50
:d:Q19911874|A Shaded AvenueJean-Honoré Fragonard49.7.51
:d:Q19911916|The Fair at BezonsJean-Baptiste Pater49.7.52
:d:Q19905439|Alexandre Charles Emmanuel de Crussol-Florensac Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun178749.7.53
:d:Q19911603|The French ComediansAntoine Watteau49.7.54
:d:Q19905423|Queen CharlotteThomas Gainsborough49.7.55
:d:Q19912335|Anne Elizabeth Cholmley, Later Lady MulgraveGainsborough Dupont49.7.56
:d:Q12097501|Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, Countess of DerbyGeorge Romney49.7.57
:d:Q29383677|Henri d'Albret, King of Navarreenamels highlighted in The MET collection155649.7.108
:d:Q20199299|Jules Semon BacheJo Davidson193649.7.120