How France betrayed the little Jewish girls in white dresses immortalized by Renoir

A new book, 'The Renoir Girls,' by Catherine Ostler traces the fate of the Cahen d'Anvers sisters, three French-Jewish girls painted by Renoir in the 1880s. Despite their family's wealth and status during the Belle Époque, they were not immune to French antisemitism and the Holocaust. The article includes an interview with Ostler.

A new book, 'The Renoir Girls: A Hidden History of Art, War & Betrayal' by Catherine Ostler, traces the fate of the Cahen d'Anvers sisters — Irène, Elisabeth and Alice — three French-Jewish girls immortalized in Pierre-Auguste Renoir's paintings 'Pink and Blue' and 'Little Irène' from the early 1880s. The daughters of banker Count Louis Cahen d'Anvers and his wife Louise, they were part of Paris's Jewish elite during the Belle Époque. Ostler's book follows their lives through the first half of the 20th century, as French antisemitism ebbed and flowed, culminating in collaboration with the Nazis during the Holocaust. Despite their wealth and patriotism, the family was not spared: Bertrand Reinach, grandson of Irène Cahen d'Anvers, was murdered in Auschwitz. The article includes an interview with Ostler, who explains her fascination with the portraits and the contrast between the gilded life captured by Renoir and the eventual tragedy.