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A Hyperallergic review examines Catherine Ostler’s book The Renoir Girls, which follows the lives of Alice and Elisabeth Cahen d’Anvers, the sisters in Renoir’s 1881 portrait Pink and Blue. The book connects their privileged upbringing in Jewish Parisian society with the antisemitism that shaped their lives and the persecution of their family during the Holocaust.
A Hyperallergic review of Catherine Ostler’s The Renoir Girls follows Alice and Elisabeth Cahen d’Anvers, the young sisters depicted in Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s 1881 painting Pink and Blue, from the wealth of their Parisian Jewish family to the antisemitic persecution and Holocaust that later devastated it. The review presents the portrait not only as an image of privilege, but as a starting point for examining a family whose wealth and deep ties to France could not protect its members from Nazi persecution.
Renoir painted Pink and Blue, the Misses Cahen d’Anvers in 1881, portraying four-year-old Alice and six-year-old Elisabeth holding hands in a richly dressed interior. Their father, Louis Cahen d’Anvers, was an Antwerp-born Jewish banker; their mother, Louise, was a prominent salonnière. Their older sister Irène had also been painted by Renoir, in La Petite Irène (1880).
According to the review, Ostler’s book centers on Louise and the family’s social world, including her salon, which attracted artists, writers and members of the Catholic aristocracy. Art critic and collector Charles Ephrussi arranged for Renoir to paint the girls. The review says Ephrussi was suspected of being Alice’s biological father; it presents this as a suspicion, not an established fact.
The review describes the sisters’ adult lives and the family’s eventual persecution. Elisabeth converted to Catholicism in 1895 and married an impoverished aristocrat, whom she later divorced. Alice married British Colonel Charles Townshend after meeting him in Egypt. In the account cited by Hyperallergic, four members of the family died in concentration camps. Elisabeth, old and infirm, was betrayed while hiding in a village in 1944 and died in or on the way to Auschwitz, the review reports.
The Family Behind Renoir’s Portrait
The story changes how viewers may read a painting often associated with childhood, wealth and elegance. Ostler’s account, as described in the review, places those qualities alongside the risks faced by Jewish families in France, including families who had long sought acceptance and participated in the country’s cultural and civic life.
The review also draws attention to the difference between the paintings’ later histories. Pink and Blue is now held by the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand and is among its popular works, according to the source. La Petite Irène was looted by the Nazis, later returned to Irène, and subsequently acquired by Swiss arms dealer Emil Georg Bührle. Its current location, the Kunsthaus Zürich, places a separate history of wartime looting and restitution alongside the family’s biography.
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Parisian Prestige and Rising Antisemitism
The Cahen d’Anvers family’s story unfolds across a period of intense social and political division. Hyperallergic’s review describes a wealthy Jewish circle with aristocratic connections, philanthropy and cultural influence, living in a country where antisemitism remained present despite the legal equality granted to Jews after the French Revolution and under the Napoleonic Code.
The review points to the Dreyfus Affair, which lasted from 1894 to 1906, as a defining crisis. Jewish French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was falsely accused of treason, a case that divided the country. The Cahen d’Anvers circle was on the Dreyfusard side, the review says, while some members of the Jewish elite appeared to remain socially insulated from the dispute. It also reports that Renoir complained about Louis’s payment in a letter to a friend, using language that reflected the antisemitism of the period.
““duet of sugared-almond-colored-sweetness””
— Hyperallergic’s reviewer, quoting Catherine Ostler
Details the Review Leaves Open
The source is a review of Ostler’s book, not a full account of every family member’s fate or a primary archival record. It does not give the review’s publication date, nor does it provide a complete list of the four family members said to have died in concentration camps. The review also reports suspicion that Ephrussi was Alice’s biological father but does not establish that claim.
The source says Elisabeth was betrayed by a village mayor and died in or on the way to Auschwitz, leaving the precise circumstances and location of her death uncertain. It also gives no additional detail about the paintings’ current display conditions or any new restitution proceedings.
Where the Paintings Are Now
The developments described are the book’s publication and the review’s account, rather than a newly announced exhibition or legal proceeding. Readers can encounter Pink and Blue at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, while La Petite Irène is on view at the Kunsthaus Zürich, according to the review. Ostler’s book offers a fuller account of the sisters and their family than the portrait alone can provide; the source gives no information about forthcoming exhibitions or additional restitution decisions.
Key Questions
Who are the girls in Renoir’s Pink and Blue?
They are Alice and Elisabeth Cahen d’Anvers, portrayed by Renoir in 1881 at ages four and six, respectively.
What is Catherine Ostler’s The Renoir Girls about?
As summarized by Hyperallergic, the book traces the Cahen d’Anvers family’s social world and the lives of the sisters, then recounts the antisemitism and Holocaust persecution that devastated the family.
Where is Pink and Blue displayed?
The review says the painting is held by the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, where it is one of the museum’s popular works.
What happened to Renoir’s portrait of Irène?
La Petite Irène was looted by the Nazis, returned to Irène, and later acquired by Swiss arms dealer Emil Georg Bührle. The review says it is now on view at the Kunsthaus Zürich.
Is Charles Ephrussi confirmed to have been Alice’s father?
No. The review says he was suspected of being Alice’s biological father, but does not present this as confirmed.
Source: hyperallergic.com
