Étienne, Baron Van Zuylen Van Nijevelt

The Van Zuylen family were originally from Utrecht in the Netherlands and descended from nobility. The family made their fortune from land reclamation through the polder system. By the 19th century the family had spread outwards into Belgium and France,

Étienne, Baron Van Zuylen Van Nijevelt was already a successful banker, amongst other business interests, when he married Hélène de Rothschild, the heir to French branch of the Rothschild fortune. Because of her marriage to a catholic, Hélène was disinherited for marrying outside the Jewish faith. The couple had two children although Hélène had numerous sexual affairs with women throughout her marriage. With one lover, Renée Vivien, she formed a successful writing partnership that published poems, short stories and novels.

Aside from his interest in horses, Étienne shared with his wife a love of cars and motorsport. The Baron founded the Automobile Club de France, the oldest car club in the world, and the Baroness competed in one of the club’s races in 1898 – making her the first female participant in a car race. Prior to this Étienne had helped organize the 1895 Paris-Bordeaux-Paris, the world’s first motor race. He was later a director of the newspaper L’Auto, the De Dion-Bouton car company and was involved in the organization of the 1900 Olympic Games.