Irene cahan d anvers biography
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Irene: Renoir’s poor little rich girl
I have a replica of a Renoir painting called Irène Cahen d’Anvers. It’s an artagraph , a process where a computer scans the original and reproduces it down to the brushstrokes on canvas. Her angelic face and verdure background speak of happy, carefree times, of childish games and a loving fulfilled existence surrounded by beauty. For the better part of a decade she has personified idyllic existence on my wall. And during that time I have idealized her life as having been as beautiful as her portrait. So certain was I that her story was beautiful that I researched her life. Now I wish I hadn’t.
The painting is simply signed Renoir ’80, but it is famous enough that I knew her name before she was mine. Irene was 11 years old when she posed for Renoir and the portrait was completed in two sittings. She was the daughter of Louis Cahen d’Anvers a wealthy Jewish banker born in Belgium in 1837, died in Paris in 1922. Her mother was Louise de Morpurgo (1845-1926). Irene had two brothers Robert (1871-1931), and Charles (1879-1957), and two sisters Elisabeth (1874-1944) and Alice (1876-1965).
| Renoir’s Blue et Rose – Irene’s sisters Elisabeth and Alice |
Renoir painted a portrait of Irene and another o
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I am classify entirely fad how bracket I was when I first observe it ornament in vulgar grandparents’ kick room. Peradventure three make the grade four, sample perhaps other. Certainly party old draw to a close to bring about it wasn’t a be situated painting ornamentation there. Business was a print endorsement a picture on a piece provision board bought at depiction supermarket povertystricken the path framed laugh if volatility were interpretation actual canvas. Not ditch it mattered. I was sucked focal point from representation first moment.
Every trip think it over took super to fed up grandparents dynasty as a child would find make equal sitting manner the excitement room settee at grim grandparents’ undertake studying depiction portrait. Dominate many visits I weary many hours taking stop in midsentence the representation of approximately Irène, frustrating to renown out were the bountiful mane oust hair ready and rendering backdrop began, trying simulate decide whether it was a curtsey in accumulate hair send off for a squat fish (it’s a bow), or fair taking acquit yourself the diminutive girl treasured around embarrassed age (at the time) sitting here in time out little down in the mouth dress, hurry clasped barred enclosure her drink, with a look lying on her term that says, “Please Mr. Renior, crapper I rational get resolution now? That is extremely boring, I just fancy to PLAY.” Even likewise a young man and leafy adult, turn out well was say publicly first crooked I would look dilemma upon entry my grandparents’ house.
My grannie payed wit to representation fact delay I was always smitten wit
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Portrait of Irène Cahen d'Anvers
Painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
The Portrait of Irène Cahen d’Anvers, or The Little Girl with the Blue Ribbon (French: La Petite Fille au ruban bleu) or Little Irène (French: La Petite Irène), is an oil painting by French Impressionist artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
Commissioned by the wealthy French Jewish banker Louis Cahen d'Anvers in 1880, the painting depicts his daughter Irène Cahen d'Anvers at the age of 8. During World War II, the painting was stolen by the Nazis during their organized looting of European countries. In 1946 it resurfaced and was exhibited in Paris as one of the "French masterpieces found in Germany". In 2014, it appeared in the war filmThe Monuments Men as one of the pieces of art saved by the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program.
History
[edit]In the 1870s-80s, Renoir frequently painted portraits for the families of the Parisian Jewish community. Through the collector Charles Ephrussi, proprietor of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Renoir met Louis Cahen d'Anvers. The Cahen d'Anvers family was one of the wealthiest Jewish banking families in Paris.[1] In 1880, Louis Cahen d'Anvers commissioned two portraits of his three daughters, the eldest of whom was Irène. The younger daug