Constant-Joseph Brochart

(French, 1816-1899)

Portrait of Caroline Slidell Perry Belmont

pastel on paper

Framed 38 x 28 1/2 inches.

Property from the Perry-Belmont Family, New York, New York

The 1849 marriage between August Belmont I and Caroline Slidell Perry joined two historic American families. Belmont was an important financier, diplomat, political leader, patron of the arts, and founder of the Belmont Stakes, making him a defining figure of America’s Golden Age. Caroline Slidell Perry was the daughter of Commodore Matthew C. Perry, a member of the Perry naval dynasty and mastermind behind diplomatic relations and trade between Japan and western nations beginning in 1854. Ancestors of the Perry family arrived on the Mayflower and were prominent in the founding of Rhode Island.

In 1837, August Belmont I came to the United States as an agent for the Rothschild banking offices and later established August Belmont & Co. After his marriage to Caroline Slidell Perry, the couple became trendsetters in Continental entertaining and built an extravagant Italianate summer home called By-the-Sea in Newport, Rhode Island. Mrs. Belmont, known for her exquisite jewels, reigned as “Queen of Society” in the mid-1860s. Their third son, Oliver Belmont, would build Newport's famed Belcourt Castle and bequeath it to his beloved wife, Alva Vanderbilt.

The Belmont’s second son, August Belmont II, became head of August Belmont & Co. and financed New York City’s first subway line, the IRT, the Cape Cod Canal, and founded New York’s Belmont Park. His first wife and childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth Hamilton Morgan, was a descendant of Alexander Hamilton. Elizabeth died prematurely and August II subsequently married Eleanor Robson, a leading lady of the American theater, who distinguished herself in social and philanthropic work.