How Renoir’s ‘Pink and Blue’ Faded to Black

By the Editorial Team · Sunday, July 19, 2026

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s 1881 painting “Pink and Blue” portrays sisters Alice and Elisabeth Cahen d’Anvers, members of a prominent French Jewish banking family whose lives reflected both Belle Époque privilege and the era’s rising antisemitism. While Alice escaped World War II by fleeing France, Elisabeth was ultimately deported and killed at Auschwitz, making the painting a powerful symbol of a lost world and fractured history.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s 1881 portrait of two young sisters, Alice and Elisabeth Cahen d’Anvers, captures an idyllic moment on the cusp of a turbulent era in French history. The painting, now known as “Pink and Blue,” depicts the siblings dressed in elegant silk and satin, standing hand in hand in Belle Époque Paris. At the time, the work was hailed as one of the most sumptuous exhibits at the Salon, reflecting the privileged life of the Cahen d’Anvers family, a prominent Jewish banking dynasty with deep cultural ties.

Louis and Louise Cahen d’Anvers, the parents of Alice and Elisabeth, were influential figures in late 19th-century France. Louis was a notable philanthropist and banker, while Louise was a magnetic hostess whose salons attracted the intellectual and artistic elite, including Marcel Proust, Guy de Maupassant, and Édouard Manet. These gatherings nonetheless symbolized the era’s contradictions, as many attendees harbored antisemitic sentiments alongside their admiration for Louise and her family.

The period was marked by rising antisemitism and social unrest, with envy toward Jewish success fueling broader societal tensions. This hostilities surfaced dramatically during the 1894 Dreyfus Affair, when Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French army officer, was wrongfully convicted of treason. While Dreyfus endured imprisonment and public vilification, the Cahen d’Anvers family maintained their social standing, though the episode exposed deep fractures in French society.

Both sisters charted distinct paths amid this complex backdrop. Elisabeth converted to Catholicism and experienced two marriages and divorces. Alice married British Colonel Charles Townshend in 1898 after meeting him in Egypt. Townshend, a decorated military officer, later faced imprisonment during World War I following a defeat in what is now Iraq. His captivity contrasted sharply with that of his soldiers, as he received preferential treatment from Ottoman officials connected to his wife’s social circle.

Despite their wealth, cultural influence, and, in Elisabeth’s case, religious conversion, the Cahen d’Anvers family could not escape the catastrophic impact of World War II and the Holocaust. Louis and Louise died in the 1920s, but the descendants endured the increasing dangers of the 1930s and ’40s. Alice managed to flee France just before the outbreak of the war, but Elisabeth was less fortunate. She went into hiding but was betrayed by a local official and ultimately deported to Auschwitz, where she was killed in 1944.

Renoir’s portrait of the sisters survived these tragedies and is now housed in the São Paulo Museum of Art in Brazil. In later years, Alice reportedly stood beside the painting, reminding visitors that she was one half of the pair immortalized in “Pink and Blue,” a poignant testament to a vanished world—one sister present, the other lost to history.

This article was reported by synthesizing coverage from multiple independent news outlets to present a balanced, unbiased account. Read about our editorial standards. Spotted an error? Let us know.