Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild (1864-1934) is the daughter of the baron Alphonse de Rothschild (1827-1905), a banker and major collector of ancient art, a notable donor to French museums and member of the Académie des beaux-arts, and of Leonora von Rothschild (1837-1911) of the London branch of the Rothschild family. Béatrice married Maurice Ephrussi (1849-1916), from whom she separated in 1904.
When her father died in 1905, Béatrice bought 7 hectares of Cap-Ferrat to build the villa of her dreams, the Villa Ile-de-France, where she lived when not in one of her apartments in Paris or Monte Carlo.
Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild died in Davos (Switzerland) on 7 April 1934. In memory of her father, she bequeathed to the Académie des Beaux-Arts the Villa Ile-de-France, now the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, with its collections and gardens, as well as its collections in Paris and Monte Carlo.