How the lives of Renoirs adorable Belle poque subjects turned to tragedy

Two adorable little girls dressed in frilly white — the elder wearing a blue sash, the younger sporting a pink one — are captured by the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir in a moment of innocence nearly 150 years ago.In the 1881 Impressionist masterpiece “Pink and Blue,” familiar from innumerable postcards, jigsaw puzzles, and art prints, the two cherubic figures are holding hands, their hair tied back by silk ribbons, their eyes looking out at the world with gentle trust. There is no hint that Elisabeth, the blonde, then 6, and Alice, the brunette, 4, will be carried forward by time into turmoil, hardship, and unimagined brutality.   As Catherine Ostler recounts in her fascinating new book, “The Renoir Girls: A Hidden History of Art, War & Betrayal,” the pair began life as the cherished youngest daughters of Louis and Louise Cahen d’Anvers, a wealthy couple who lived on the fashionable Avenue Montaigne in Belle Époque Paris.It was a brilliant era of galloping scientific and technological progress, and a remarkable flowering in the fine arts. The girls’ mother, Louise, was a well-known society beauty who dressed in haute couture, hosted a salon for artists and writers, and conducted a long affair with art patron Charles Ephrussi, believed to be an inspiration for Charles Swann in Marcel Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time.” Ephrussi persuaded Louise to have her children’s portraits done by Renoir, then an up-and-comer in the Impressionist movement, which was radically overturning the rigid rules of academic painting.Renoir first visited the Cahen d’Anvers townhouse in 1880 to paint his older sister, Irène.

In this striking picture — known now as “Little Irène” — the girl’s cascade of red-gold hair, doll-like features, and creamy skin are set off vibrantly against a green background of tangled leaves.The next year, the artist painted the two younger daughters.For some reason, this second painting, although praised lavishly ...