The lives of Renoir's subjects in the iconic painting 'Pink and Blue' took a tragic turn, revealing a hidden history of art, war, and betrayal. The painting, depicting two young girls, Elisabeth and Alice, in a moment of innocence, holds a darker secret. The girls were the youngest daughters of Louis and Louise Cahen d'Anvers, a wealthy Jewish family in Belle Époque Paris. Their mother, Louise, was a society beauty and a patron of the arts, known for her affair with Charles Ephrussi, a possible inspiration for Charles Swann in Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time'.
The story takes a turn when the girls' father, Louis, was dissatisfied with Renoir's portrait of Alice, suspecting her to be Ephrussi's daughter. This led to a complex web of events. The book 'The Renoir Girls: A Hidden History of Art, War & Betrayal' by Catherine Ostler explores the lives of the girls, their family, and the societal context of the time.
The Cahen d'Anvers family was part of the Parisian elite, known as 'le gratin'. However, the Dreyfus affair, a political scandal, caused a shift in public sentiment towards Jews. Elisabeth, influenced by her mother's affair with Comte Jean de Forceville, converted to Catholicism in 1895. Alice, on the other hand, married Charles Townshend, a British Army officer, and later lived mostly in England.
The story takes a tragic turn during World War II. Alice, then 64, found herself in a vulnerable situation as the Germans advanced. She and her family, including her grandson and granddaughter, were forced to flee, cowering in a ditch for two nights. They eventually reached Bordeaux and boarded a freighter for Britain. Meanwhile, Elisabeth, who had retreated from Paris, was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Drancy, a Jewish collection point outside Paris. She was transported to her death in March 1944, aged 69.
The painting 'Pink and Blue' itself had a journey. It was included in a French art tour of the Americas in 1939 and later sold to a Brazilian plutocrat. Today, it hangs in the São Paulo Museum of Art, serving as a poignant reminder of the tragic fate of the girls and the fragile nature of the Belle Époque era.
