The lives of Renoir's subjects in the iconic 'Pink and Blue' painting took a tragic turn, revealing a hidden history of art, war, and betrayal. The painting, depicting two young girls, Elisabeth and Alice, holding hands and dressed in frilly white, was created by Pierre-Auguste Renoir in 1881. The girls, the youngest daughters of Louis and Louise Cahen d'Anvers, were part of a wealthy Parisian family that hosted artists and writers in their salon. Their mother, Louise, was a well-known society beauty and conducted a long affair with art patron Charles Ephrussi, who may have been an inspiration for Charles Swann in Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time'.
The painting's creation was influenced by Louise's desire to have her children's portraits done by Renoir, an up-and-coming Impressionist artist. However, the painting's reception was not without controversy. The girls' father, Louis, was initially slow to pay Renoir, possibly due to his dissatisfaction with the image of Alice, or a suspicion that she was not his biological daughter. This mystery sets the stage for a story filled with intrigue and tragedy.
The Cahen d'Anvers family was part of the Parisian elite, known as 'le gratin', during a time of scientific and technological progress, and a flourishing of the fine arts. However, the family's Jewish heritage became a source of suspicion and resentment in the context of the Dreyfus affair, which divided France into pro- and anti-Dreyfusard camps. Antisemitism and xenophobia were on the rise, and the Cahen d'Anvers family, like other Jewish families, felt the impact of these tensions.
Elisabeth, the elder of the two girls, converted to Catholicism in 1895, possibly influenced by her mother's affair with Charles Ephrussi and her own experiences with nuns after a riding accident. She later married Comte Jean de Forceville, a Catholic aristocrat. Alice, on the other hand, married Charles Townshend, a British Army officer, and lived mostly in England. However, during World War II, Alice and her family faced immense hardship. She and her children were forced to flee France as the Germans advanced, and she endured a harrowing journey to Britain, while her daughter Audrey stayed behind to work for the Resistance.
The tragic fate of Elisabeth is particularly poignant. After the German occupation, she retreated from Paris and was cared for by a Gentile couple in a cottage. However, her village mayor, influenced by antisemitism, informed the Gestapo of her whereabouts, leading to her arrest and transport to Drancy, a collection point for Jews outside Paris. She was eventually sent to Auschwitz and died in 1944 at the age of 69. The painting 'Pink and Blue' itself had a remarkable journey, traveling to the Americas and eventually finding its home in the São Paulo Museum of Art, where it serves as a poignant reminder of the fragility of the Belle Époque era.
