August Belmont was born in Germany, and after training at the Rothschilds' bank in Frankfurt, came to New York at twenty-one to open a banking house and act as the agent for the Rothschilds. A Wall Street financier and a patron of the arts, he was the model for Beaufort, the successful businessman in The Age of Innocence, who lived in a brownstone mansion and entertained lavishly.
August Belmont 1816-1890
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John Quincy Adams Ward (1830-1910)
Bronze, 1892
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C.
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