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Château
Mouton-Rothschild

Labels

A completely separate chapter in the world
of wine labels is the labels on the bottles of
Château Mouton Rothschild, 1er Cru Classé
from Pauillac (Médoc) in Bordeaux. In the
1920s, Baron Philippe de Rothschild (1902-
1988), a bon vivant and a man of many hob-
bies, asked his friend, a one-armed designer
Jean Carl, to design a label, which then deco-
rated the bottles with its modern concept for
several years. The same artist created today‘s
highly valued posters for the Théâtre Pigalle,
which the baron operated from 1924 to 1931.
As a passionate athlete, Baron Philippe de
Rothschild competed in many motorsport
races, including the Monaco Grand Prix and
the 24-hour Le Mans race in a Bugatti. He was
also an acclaimed yachtsman, who won the
prestigious French Regatta Cup.
However, fate also took a cruel toll on him
- his first wife, Élisabeth, was burned alive
during the war in the Ravensbrück concen-
tration camp. The marriage resulted in the
birth of the baron‘s only daughter, Philippi-
ne Mathilde Camille, Baroness de Rothschild
(1933 - 2014).
With the end of the war in 1945, the baron
returned to the idea of connecting wine and
fine arts. Initially, Baron Philippe selected
painters from among his friends and acquain-
tances - including Jean Cocteau. In 1955,
Georges Braque was responsible for the
illustration, followed by some of the most im-
portant modern artists of that time, such as
Salvator Dalí, César, Juan Miró, Marc Chagall,
Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Pierre Soulages,
Francis Bacon, Balthus, Antoni Tàpies or Jeff
Koons and even Prince Charles, the Prince of
Wales. To this day, artists still accept the agre-
ement that art is paid for with wine and not
money; they are always rewarded with wines
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