Jules Porgès

Jules Porgès was born in Vienna in 1839 and grew up in Prague. He moved to Paris in the early 1860s where he founded Jules Porgès and Company and became a leading force in the global diamond trade. He married Rose-Anne Porgès (née Wodianer), with whom he had a daughter, Henriette Hélène. Porgès’ art collection consisted mainly of Dutch and Flemish Old Masters which were on display in his mansion on Avenue Montaigne.  He had built a Neoclassical château in Rochefort-en-Yvelines in the Paris suburbs. After Porgès’ death in 1921, his collection was dispersed over the course of several auctions. Adolphe Schloss owned paintings which had passed through Jules Porgès’ collection. Likewise, Jules Porgès owned paintings which Adolphe Schloss had owned. Art dealer Franz Kleinberger brokered most of the Porgès and Schloss transactions. For instance, Halte de cavalier (Schloss German no. 130/ French no. 153), painted by Dutch landscape painter Hendrik de Meijer (1620-1689); it had been in the Porgès collection until 1908, and then was with Kleinberger from whom Adolphe Schloss acquired it. Sources: https://www.gazette-drouot.com/en/article/les-largesses-de-jules-porges-diamantaire-et-collectionneur-de-la-belle-epoque/24106