Peter Mark Brant is an American businessman, publisher, art collector, and philanthropist with a decades-long career spanning the paper industry, the art world, and the polo field. He is widely recognized as the husband of supermodel Stephanie Seymour, whom he married in 1995, but his public profile stands on considerably broader ground than that connection alone.
| Full name | Peter Mark Brant |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Professions | Businessman, publisher, art collector, philanthropist, polo patron |
| Known for | Chairman of White Birch Paper; founder of The Brant Foundation; husband of Stephanie Seymour |
| Father | Murray Brant |
| Spouse | Stephanie Seymour (married July 1995) |
| Children | Peter Brant Jr., Harry Brant, Lily Margaret Brant |
The Paper Industry Career That Built His Fortune
Brant’s primary business career is rooted in the pulp-and-paper industry. His father, Murray Brant, co-founded the family’s paper business in 1941. Peter Brant took the reins and, from the 1970s onward, transformed what had been a paper converter and broker — operating under the name BATO Company — into a major newsprint manufacturer.
Under his leadership, the operation grew substantially. White Birch Paper eventually reached production of more than one million metric tons of newsprint annually across four mills located in the United States and Canada. Brant serves as chairman of the company, which remains the clearest and best-documented foundation of his business career.
The scale of the White Birch operation put Brant in a different category from the typical wealthy art patron or socialite. He built his position through an industrial business with real manufacturing infrastructure, not simply through inherited assets or financial markets.
Publishing and Brant Publications
Alongside his paper industry work, Brant has been associated with Brant Publications, a media company whose titles have included Interview, Art in America, The Magazine Antiques, and MODERN. The publishing operation served as a natural bridge between his commercial life and his involvement in the art world, with several of those titles directly focused on fine art, design, and culture.
That combination — newsprint manufacturing on one side, art and culture publishing on the other — gives his career an unusual shape. The two sides are not unrelated: paper production and magazine publishing share an obvious industrial logic, while the specific titles he published reflected his personal interests in contemporary art and collecting.
Art Collecting, The Brant Foundation, and Museum Involvement
Brant has built a significant contemporary art collection over many years and is considered a serious figure in American art patronage. He established The Brant Foundation and The Brant Foundation Art Study Center in Greenwich, Connecticut, which functions as a space to share parts of his collection with the public and support arts education.
His institutional connections in the art world are extensive. He has served in advisory or trustee roles at The Andy Warhol Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and Hunter College.
His contributions to arts patronage have been formally recognized on more than one occasion. He received the Whitney Museum of American Art’s American Art Award in 2013 and the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award in 2015. Those recognitions place him among collectors who are acknowledged not just for spending on art but for supporting its institutional infrastructure.
Readers interested in the broader context of American art collecting and philanthropy can find additional coverage at First Business Mag.
Polo Player and Patron
A third dimension of Brant’s public identity is his involvement in polo. He founded and has led the White Birch polo team and has been consistently described as both a player and a patron of the sport. His polo activities are connected to the Greenwich Polo Club, and he has also been associated with thoroughbred horse racing.
Polo occupies a meaningful place in his biography rather than being a passing hobby. Multiple sources covering his life specifically cite his role in the polo world alongside his business and art activities, suggesting it has been a sustained pursuit over a long period.
Peter Brant’s Family
Peter Brant married Stephanie Seymour in July 1995. Seymour, one of the most recognized supermodels of the 1990s, had previously been in a relationship that produced a son, Dylan Thomas Andrews, who later became known professionally as Dylan Brant. Brant has been connected to Dylan in a stepfather role.
Peter and Stephanie have three children together: Peter Brant Jr., Harry Brant, and Lily Margaret Brant. Harry Brant, who worked in modeling and fashion, passed away in January 2021.
The marriage has not been without difficulty. The couple filed for divorce in 2009 but reconciled and did not proceed with the separation. By 2010 they had resumed their relationship. They have remained one of the more prominent couples connected to both the American business world and the fashion and art scenes.
Brant had been previously married before his relationship with Seymour.
A Career That Stands on Its Own
Peter Mark Brant is frequently mentioned in the context of his marriage to Stephanie Seymour, which is understandable given her fame as a model. But his independent career tells a separate and substantial story. He spent decades running a major industrial paper company, built one of the more notable contemporary art collections in the United States, founded a public arts institution, published significant art and culture titles, and maintained a serious presence in the polo world.
Taken together, those activities represent a public life that is genuinely varied — spanning manufacturing, media, philanthropy, sport, and culture — and one that would exist independently of whom he married.
