Halphen, Georges (1913-2003)

Son of Fernand Halphen (1872-1917) and Alice de Koenigswarter (1878-1963), Georges Halphen was a passionate art collector, fully involved in public life.

Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur, officier des Palmes Académiques, commandeur de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole, commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, médaille de la jeunesse et des sports, médaille d’or départementale et communale, Honorary Mayor of La Chapelle-en-Serval after 35 years in office, Georges Halphen was born on March 9, 1913 in the 15th arrondissement of Paris and died on May 6, 2003, at the age of 90.

He was just 4 years old when his father died on May 16, 1917 of diphtheria contracted at the front. He grew up with his sister Henriette Halphen (1911-2002) and his mother between the rue Dumont-d’Urville hotel in Paris and La Chapelle-en-Serval (Oise), where his father had had a sumptuous château built between 1907 and 1911 by the architect Guillaume Tronchet^[1]This château, which originally housed a theater, was later sold in the early 1990s and renamed “Chateau Hôtel Mont Royal”. It is currently owned by a luxury hotel group..

On January 25, 1938, Georges Halphen married Janine Delamare de Boutteville (1908-2005). In 1941, he met Michèle Bossoutrot (1918-1995), daughter of the famous aviator Lucien Bossoutrot (1890-1958)^[2]See also her biography at https://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/bio/(num_dept)/998.Bossoutrot, who was part of a resistance network in the Lot region, welcomed Georges and his mother Alice to his home in Boussac. From December 1, 1942 to September 20, 1944, Georges took part in the resistance operations of the Buckmaster network (Hilaire-WHEELWRIGHT) which organized sabotage and parachuting operations throughout France. In 1944, Georges married for the second time Michèle Bossoutrot, with whom he had two children: Stéphane born in May 1942 and Nathalie born in November 1945. In 1950, he married for the third time Monique de Rothschild (1925-2018), from whom he later divorced to live again with Janine Delamare de Boutteville.

During the two years he spent in hiding in the Lot region, Georges learned to work the land, which led him to settle in La Chapelle-en-Serval, in the hunting lodge built by his father. With a passion for agriculture, he specialized in growing grass for breeding horses and cattle with INRA (Institut national de la recherche agronomique), where he met René Dumont, founder of the ecology movement, who was also a left-wing farmer. He also raises Charolais cattle and racehorses at the Haras de la Censière.

Very attached to his village, Georges Halphen was mayor of La Chapelle-en-Serval for 35 years. He developed a number of infrastructure projects, including a school complex, a secondary school, a stadium and social housing, for which he donated a large plot of land and a small building to create a post office. Later, he had the commune acquire a beautiful Napoleon III house, with a large park, which became the new town hall of La Chapelle-en-Serval, making it one of the most beautiful town halls in the canton. He also chaired the urban planning commission for the Schéma directeur d’aménagement et d’urbanisme de la Vallée de Lisieux.

From an early age, Georges was drawn to art and archaeology. His travels included a trip to Bali in 1938, a marvellous island with very few tourists at the time. He made numerous trips to Asia, particularly Cambodia, and developed a passion for the art of the region. Over the years, he built up a remarkable collection of Asian art (from China to Egypt), including objects of great craftsmanship, which he donated to numerous museums, including the Musée Guimet, the Musée du quai Branly (also known as the Musée des arts premiers) and the Musée d’Orsay, which received a portrait of his father Fernand Halphen enfant, (Fernand Halphen as a child), painted by Renoir.

Fascinated by the Peruvian Indians and their civilization, Georges Halphen collected, towards the end of his life, the feather garments and mortuary costumes that enveloped the dead in their tombs, the prerogative of the kings and elite of the Inca empire, who were believed to possess mystical powers. Fascinated by the subject, he organized an exhibition at the Maison de l’Amérique latine in June 2003, which he unfortunately was unable to attend, dying beforehand on May 6, 2023.

In November 2023, his entire collection was offered for sale by the renowned auction house Christie’s.

Georges Halphen leaves behind the image of a passionate, charming and morally upright man. In 1992, together with his sister Henriette Halphen-Schumann, he created the Alice and Fernand Halphen Foundation, under the aegis of the Fondation de France, which for years supported the work of Yuval, association française pour la préservation des traditions musicales juives, (a French association for the preservation of Jewish musical traditions).

More about Georges Halphen