Who Are Renoir’s Mystery Girls? With Catherine Ostler

In this compelling episode of Intelligence Squared, historian and author Catherine Ostler joins James McCauley to explore the hidden histories behind Pierre-Auguste Renoir's iconic portraits of three young sisters—Irene, Alice, and Elizabeth Cayenne d'Anvers—known as the 'Renoir Girls.' Ostler's book, *The Renoir Girls*, traces the family’s journey from their roots in Bonn and Antwerp through the glittering salons of Belle Époque Paris, into the devastating upheavals of the 20th century. The sisters, painted in the 1880s as symbols of innocence and aristocratic elegance, each face vastly different fates: Irene’s tumultuous marriage and exile, Alice’s transformation into an English aristocrat, and Elizabeth’s tragic death in Auschwitz. The episode delves into how these women navigated shifting identities amid rising anti-Semitism, the Dreyfus Affair, and the trauma of two world wars. The paintings themselves become displaced artifacts, surviving the war only to be scattered across Zurich and São Paulo, echoing the dislocation of their sitters. Through meticulous research and emotional depth, Ostler reveals how personal stories illuminate the broader tragedies of European history, where beauty and destruction coexist in haunting resonance.