Mr. Necker

A half length portrait, enclosed in an oval of the Swiss financier Jacques Necker (1732-1804). He wears a velvet coat and glances out to the left. The Geneva-born Jacques Necker started off as a clerk in a Swiss bank of Issac Vernet at the age of 15 and worked his way to the top quickly. In 1750 Necker moved to bank’s Paris branch and, by 1762, was made a partner. As a result of his speculative activities, by 1765, Necker a very wealthy man and the sole director of the bank. Necker became gradually involved in public affairs. He made numerous loans to the French government, was appointed minister for Geneva in Paris and sat on the board of directors of the French Compagnie des Indes. It was upon the news of Necker’s removal as Minister of Finance that the population of Paris headed to the Bastille on July 14th 1789. Necker was appointed Minister of Finance by the new regime, but went into retirement at his Swiss estate soon afterwards. Father of the intellectual and Swedish Ambassadress Germaine de Stael, he returned to Paris in 1792 to make a passionate and ultimately unsuccessful plea before the National Assembly to spare the life of King Louis XVI.