Lifestyle : Financial : Wealthy

Alfred Bruyas (15 August 1821 – 1 January 1877) was an art collector and a personal friend of many important artists of his time, among them Gustave Courbet and Alexandre Cabanel. He donated his collection to the Musée Fabre, in Montpellier.
Born Jacques Louis Bruyas, he was the son of a wealthy banker in Montpellier. His interest in art was clear even at school. In 1840 he studied at the studio of Charles Matet, however he soon recognized the limits of his own talents and shifted his focus to the promotion and collection of contemporary art.
From 1849 to 1854 he spent most of his time in Paris. There he collected work by Louis Hector Allemand, Camille Corot, Thomas Couture, Eugène Delacroix, Narcisse Diaz de Peña, Adrien Guignet, Adolphe Hervier, Prosper Marilhat, Edouard-Antoine Marsal, Jean-François Millet, Théodore Rousseau, Philippe-Joseph Tassaert, Marcel Verdier and Constant Troyon, but above all the work of Gustave Courbet.

Mathilde de Morny (26 May 1863 – 29 June 1944) was a French aristocrat and artist. Morny was also known by the nickname "Missy" or by the artistic pseudonym "Yssim" (an anagram of Missy), or as "Max", "Uncle Max" (French: Oncle Max), or "Monsieur le Marquis". Active as a sculptor and painter, Morny studied under Comte Saint-Cène and the sculptor Édouard-Gustave-Louis Millet de Marcilly.

Niels Onstad (26 March 1909 – 17 June 1978) was a Norwegian shipowner and art collector.

Guy La Chambre (5 June 1898 – 24 May 1975) was a French politician. He served as Minister of Merchant Marine in 1934 and Minister of Air from 1938 until 1940.

George Alexander Baird (30 September 1861 – 18 March 1893) was a wealthy British race horse owner, breeder and the most successful amateur jockey (gentleman rider) of his day, who rode under the assumed name of Mr Abington. He was a controversial figure, at times in conflict with the establishment, "warned off" for his aggressive riding behaviour, implicated in a prize fight fixing scandal. and named as co-respondent in two divorce cases. He had a relationship with Lillie Langtry, noted actress and former mistress of the Prince of Wales (King Edward VII). Baird died at age thirty-three of pneumonia in a hotel room in New Orleans, Louisiana, after traveling there for prize fights with men he sponsored.

Stéphane Courbit (born 28 April 1965) is a French businessman in the sector of media and television.
In 2022, his net worth was estimated to be €2,200 million euros. He was listed as the 56th-richest man in France.

Laurence Parisot (born 31 August 1959 in Luxeuil-les-Bains, Haute-Saône) is a French businesswoman who served as head of the French MEDEF employers' union from 2005 until 2013. She also directs the IFOP poll institute. She became the 276th wealthiest French person after she inherited the Parisot group (first furnishing retail group in France).

Marie Ernest Paul Boniface de Castellane, Marquis de Castellane (February 14, 1867 – October 20, 1932), known as Boni de Castellane, was a French nobleman and politician. He was known as a leading Belle Époque tastemaker and the first husband of American railroad heiress Anna Gould.

Paul-Louis Halley (French pronunciation: [pɔl lwi alɛ]; 16 September 1934 – 6 December 2003) was a French businessman who co-founded the retail company Promodès, which later merged with Carrefour. Much of his fortune came from his 11% stakeholding in Carrefour. He was estimated to have a fortune of £2.2bn, putting him at 104th on the Forbes World's Richest People list in 2003. He died in a plane crash in 2003.
Paul-Louis Halley founded the retail company Promodès in 1961, along with his father and brother. The company merged with Carrefour in 1999, with Halley as the principal shareholder.

Sir John Reeves Ellerman, 1st Baronet, CH (15 May 1862 – 16 July 1933) was an English shipowner and investor, believed to be the richest man in England. An accountant by training, he learned to identify underpriced companies and acquired them, often as sole stakeholder. His shipping interests were combined into the giant Ellerman Lines, and he also invested in newspapers, breweries, coal, and prestige London property. Despite his huge wealth, his personal life was notably modest and private.