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A Hyperallergic review examines Catherine Ostler’s book The Renoir Girls, which follows Alice and Elisabeth Cahen d’Anvers, the sisters depicted in Renoir’s 1881 Pink and Blue. The account connects their privileged upbringing in Jewish elite society with growing antisemitism, the Holocaust, and the distinct later histories of the sisters’ portraits.
A Hyperallergic review of Catherine Ostler’s book The Renoir Girls traces the lives of Alice and Elisabeth Cahen d’Anvers, the sisters in Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s 1881 painting Pink and Blue, from a privileged Parisian childhood to a family history marked by antisemitism and the Holocaust. The review describes how Ostler uses the portrait and the sisters’ lives to examine the gap between the family’s desire to belong in France and the persecution that later reached them.
Renoir painted Alice, then four, and Elisabeth, then six, in the Paris home of their parents, Jewish banker Louis Cahen d’Anvers and salonnière Louise. The finished work shows the girls holding hands in an elaborate interior, dressed in pink and blue. The review identifies the painting’s setting and the family’s social standing as a starting point for Ostler’s narrative, rather than treating the portrait only as an image of childhood.
Louise’s salon brought together artists, writers and members of the Catholic aristocracy. The review says art critic and collector Charles Ephrussi, Louise’s lover, arranged for Renoir to paint the girls; he was suspected of being Alice’s biological father. Ostler also follows the sisters’ older sibling Irène, whose portrait, La Petite Irène, Renoir painted in 1880.
The sisters’ adult lives took different paths. Elisabeth converted to Catholicism in 1895 and married an aristocrat, whom she later divorced. Alice married British Colonel Charles Townshend after meeting him in Egypt. Irène married Moïse de Camondo, later left him, and became involved with the head of his stable. The review recounts how the family’s wealth and commitment to France did not protect it from Nazi persecution: four family members died in concentration camps, including Elisabeth, who was betrayed while hiding and died in or on the way to Auschwitz in 1944.
The Family History Behind the Portrait
The review’s central point is that the painting’s apparent sweetness sits beside a history of exclusion and violence. The Cahen d’Anvers family was wealthy, socially connected and committed to France, yet those advantages could not guarantee safety as antisemitism intensified. That contrast makes the work relevant beyond Renoir’s artistic reputation: the people depicted were part of a family whose history was later shaped by persecution.
The story also draws attention to how paintings carry different histories after they leave their original setting. Pink and Blue is now at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand. La Petite Irène was looted by the Nazis, returned to Irène, and later purchased by Swiss arms dealer Emil Georg Bührle, according to the review. The different paths of the two works connect the family story to questions of wartime loss, restitution and museum collections.
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From Belle Époque Paris to Occupation
The portraits date from the late 19th century: Renoir painted Irène in 1880 and her younger sisters in 1881. The Cahen d’Anvers belonged to a Jewish elite whose public life included salons, philanthropy and the restoration of historic properties. The review situates that world against a France where legal equality for Jews coexisted with persistent prejudice.
One major turning point was the Dreyfus Affair, which ran from 1894 to 1906 and divided French society after Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus was framed for treason. Hyperallergic reports that the Cahen d’Anvers and their circle supported Dreyfus, while the sisters pursued lives shaped by assimilation, marriage and changing social ties. The review then follows the family into the Nazi occupation, when those earlier signs of belonging offered no safeguard from persecution.
““duet of sugared-almond-colored-sweetness””
— Catherine Ostler, as quoted in the Hyperallergic review
What the Review Leaves Open
The supplied review does not give the publication date of Ostler’s book or provide a full account of the evidence behind every biographical detail. It reports that Ephrussi was suspected of being Alice’s biological father; that remains a reported suspicion, not an established fact in the material provided. The review also does not specify the identities of all four family members who died in concentration camps beyond naming Elisabeth.
The source describes the later ownership history of La Petite Irène but does not provide dates or further documentation for each transaction. This article relies on the review’s account and does not independently verify those details.
Where the Portraits Are Now
The review identifies Pink and Blue as part of the collection of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, where it is described as one of the museum’s most popular works. La Petite Irène is on view at Kunsthaus Zürich. No new exhibition, restitution decision or other forthcoming event is specified in the source material.
For readers interested in the story beyond the paintings, Ostler’s The Renoir Girls is the book at the center of the review. The next development in the source record would be additional publication or institutional information; the supplied report does not announce one.
Key Questions
Who are the girls in Renoir’s “Pink and Blue”?
They are Alice and Elisabeth Cahen d’Anvers, daughters of Louis and Louise Cahen d’Anvers. Renoir painted them in 1881, when they were four and six, respectively.
What book does the review discuss?
The Hyperallergic review discusses Catherine Ostler’s The Renoir Girls, which follows the lives of the Cahen d’Anvers sisters and their family history.
Where is “Pink and Blue” now?
The review says the painting is held by the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand in Brazil.
What happened to Renoir’s portrait of Irène?
La Petite Irène was looted by the Nazis and later returned to Irène, according to the review. It was subsequently bought by Emil Georg Bührle and is now on view at Kunsthaus Zürich.
Did the family’s wealth protect it during the Holocaust?
No. The review says four members of the family died in concentration camps. Elisabeth, who was hiding, was betrayed and died in or on the way to Auschwitz in 1944.
Source: hyperallergic.com
