Constance Schweich (1869 – 12 February 1951; married name: Constance Goetze) was a British philanthropist and patron of the arts.

Early life

Schweich was born in Paris the only daughter of Leopold Schweich and Philippina Schweich, née Mond (1840–1873). Her mother died when she was a child and her father before she reached maturity. By 1894 she was living in England with her uncle

Ludwig Mond Ludwig Mond FRS (7 March 1839 – 11 December 1909) was a German-born British chemist and industrialist. He discovered an important, previously unknown, class of compounds called metal carbonyls. Education and career Ludwig Mond was born in ...

. In 1907, at the age of 38, she married the artist Sigismund Goetze, whose sister Violet Goetze was married to her cousin Alfred Mond, and they purchased as their marital residence Grove House, a villa in

Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, Borough of Camden (and historical ...

built by

Decimus Burton Decimus Burton (30 September 1800 – 14 December 1881) was one of the foremost English architects and landscapers of the 19th century. He was the foremost Victorian architect in the Roman revival, Greek revival, Georgian neoclassical and Reg ...

, at auction.

Philanthropy

In 1907, in memory of her father, Constance made a substantial endowment to the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

to create a fund that would be "devoted to the furtherance of research in the archaeology, art, history, languages and literature of Ancient Civilisation, with reference to Biblical Study", which led to the first of the annual

Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology The ''Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology'' are a series of lectures delivered and published under the auspices of the British Academy. The Leopold Schweich Trust Fund, set up in 1907, was a gift from Miss Constance Schweich in memory of her ...

in 1908. Subsequent lectures have been published as a series by the

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. In 1925, two years after the death of her aunt Frida Mond, the wife of Ludwig Mond, Constance endowed the Frida Mond Studentship at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

to promote literary studies amongst graduates in arts in her memory. Following the unexpected death of her husband in 1939, she made a bequest of a number of artworks and ten manuscripts from his estate to the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities University museum, museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard ...

, including ''Ecce Homo'' by

Guido Reni Guido Reni (; 4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian Baroque painter, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicolas Poussin, and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religious works, but al ...

(painted in 1639). In accordance with his will, she also set up the Constance Fund, which he had originally intended to be established in order to commemorate her memory through the gifts of sculpture to parks in London, and which she now administered to commemorate his memory. Under her direction, the Constance Fund commissioned the ''Triton and Dryads'' fountain, designed by William McMillan in 1936, which was at last installed in

Queen Mary's Gardens Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

in 1950 with an inscription commemorating Goetze as a "Painter Lover of the Arts and Benefactor of this Park". The Constance Fund also commissioned the ''Diana in the Trees Fountain'' in

Green Park The Green Park, one of the Royal Parks of London, is in the City of Westminster, Central London. Green Park is to the north of the gardens and semi-circular forecourt of Buckingham Palace, across Constitution Hill road. The park is in the m ...

, which was completed after her death and was presented to the Minister of Works by her niece Countess May Cippico. The fund's final commission, in 1963, was the ''Joy of Life'' fountain by T. B. Huxley-Jones in Hyde Park (renamed in 2001/2002 as the ''Four Winds Fountain''). Following her death in 1951, her estate was valued at some £431,501. Her will, proved 4 April 1951, established the Constance Goetze Bequest to the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

, which supports graduates of exceptional talent in acquiring a good instrument and meeting the expense of those graduates' first recital in a London concert hall.

References

External links

Schweich Lectures page on British Academy website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schweich, Constance 1869 births 1951 deaths Mond family English Jews British Ashkenazi Jews Philanthropists from Paris