The Renoir Girls by Catherine Ostler 

The Renoir Girls: A Hidden History of Art, War & Betrayal by Catherine Ostler — the astonishing true story behind one of Impressionism’s most famous paintings.

In 1881, Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted the two young daughters of a wealthy Parisian Jewish banking family — Elisabeth and Alice Cahen d’Anvers — in the celebrated dual portrait known as Pink and Blue. The Cahen d’Anvers were pillars of Belle Époque high society: collectors, philanthropists, and friends of aristocrats, artists, and intellectuals.

But the shimmering world of privilege would not last. In this gripping, meticulously researched history, Catherine Ostler follows the sisters and their family from the glittering balls of Paris through rising antisemitism, two world wars, and the darkest days of the Holocaust. One sister would marry an English aristocrat and escape; another’s story would end in tragedy and collaboration.

Drawing on never-before-seen letters, diaries, and personal recollections, The Renoir Girls reveals a forgotten chapter of art history and a powerful family saga of beauty, ambition, love, betrayal, and survival. It is a story about one of the world’s most famous pictures — and the vanished world of Paris that preferred to remain hidden.

An Instant New York Times bestseller. Essential reading for fans of art history, Jewish history, and narrative nonfiction.