Lot Essay
Baroness Renée de Becker was the great granddaughter of Baron James de Rothschild and one of the great tastemakers in the United States of the twentieth century. A grande dame of high society, she lived at 820 Fifth Avenue in the apartment that she eventually sold to Mr. and Mrs. Wrightsman. Her personal taste greatly influenced the collecting of the Wrightsmans and thus she can be indirectly credited with the formation of the Wrightsman collection. In fact, it was the Baroness, who introduced the Wrightsmans to famed interior designer and president ot Maison Jansen, Stéphane Boudin, who advised the couple on purchases, collecting and decorating. Mrs. Wrightsman kept and lived with a number of objects from the Baroness' collection, including these bowls.