The Renoir Girls

In 1881, Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted two young sisters from the Jewish banking dynasty Cahen d’Anvers at their home in Paris’s grand 8th arrondissement. The resulting portrait, Pink and Blue, captures Elisabeth and Alice Cahen d’Anvers in a fleeting moment of innocence and beauty, and remains one of Renoir’s most celebrated works.

The painting evokes the glamour of the Belle Époque: days at the races, nights at the opera, sun-soaked châteaux and brilliant salons filled with art, music and conversation.

But beneath the glittering surface lay a growing current of resentment. The same society illuminated by progress and culture was also shadowed by division, prejudice and rising antisemitism.

Drawing on letters, diaries and exclusive new research, Ostler uncovers the intimate lives behind the portrait and the family secrets hidden within it. From the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War to the Dreyfus Affair and the devastation of two world wars, The Renoir Girls tells a powerful story of love, courage and identity in conflict with the forces of history.

Chosen by The Times as a book to look out for in 2026, this event offers a vivid journey into a dazzling world on the edge of rupture.