Irène Cahen d'Anvers (La Petite Irène)

inscr. u. r.: Renoir 80

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Dauberville 506

2021

The painting you see here, Irène Cahen d'Anvers (Little Irene) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, is a portrait of a young girl that is regarded by many as a masterpiece. It is commissioned in 1880 by the Cahens d’Anvers, a respected Jewish family. Later it is looted by the Nazis. It is returned to its owners after the war. In 1949, Emil Bührle acquires the work for his collection. The commission: The girl we see here is Irène Cahen d’Anvers (1872–1963). Her mother, Louise Cahen d’Anvers, commissions the portrait in 1880 from the then unknown painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. However, she is not happy with the result, and has it hung in the servants’ quarters of her house. When it is shown at the Paris Salon of 1881, though, it receives high praise from art critics. Today, it is considered to be one of the artist’s finest portraits. The artist: Like many other Impressionist painters, Pierre Auguste Renoir spends a long time living in poverty. No one wants to buy his pictures. Then, friends from the higher Parisian society help him secure commissions for portraits – including the one of Irène Cahen d’Anvers. This garners him attention, and today he is considered one of the most famous artists of his time. The subject: Young Irène gazes expectantly at a point outside the picture, where her future lies. In 1891, she marries the Jewish banker Moïse de Camondo, with whom she has two children. She leaves her husband for her lover, the Italian nobleman Carlo Sampieri, who becomes her second spouse. Her daughter from her first marriage, Béatrice, marries the composer Léon Reinach. In 1933, she is given this picture as a present by her grandmother Louise. The looting: In 1941, the painting is seized by the «Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce», an organisation set up by the Nazi party to loot cultural property. It is handed over to Hermann Göring, «Reich minister» and commander in chief of the German air force. He in turn exchanges it for a Florentine tondo from the art dealer Gustav Rochlitz. In 1942, Béatrice Reinach, her husband and their two children Fanny and Bertrand are arrested by the Nazis. All four are murdered at Auschwitz. Following the German capitulation in May 1945, the painting is found in Berlin by the Allies and is returned to its owner. The heir to the Reinach family is Countess Irène Sampieri (née Cahen d’Anvers), Renoir’s model, mother, mother-in-law and grandmother to the murdered Béatrice, Léon, Fanny and Bertrand Reinach. In 1949, Irène Sampieri sells the portrait to Emil Bührle via the Swiss artist Werner Feuz. To this day, the much-loved painting is imbued with profound memories of loss, suffering, death and mourning. State of research 31.12.2021 Do you have questions, criticism, suggestions, and further information? Please send us a message to provenienzforschung(at)kunsthaus.ch.

- Die Sammlung Emil Bührle. Geschichte, Gesamtkatalog und 70 Meisterwerke, hrsg. vom Schweizerischen Institut für Kunstwissenschaft (SIK-ISEA), München: Hirmer, 2021, No. 173, S. 264 (ill.). - Sammlung Emil G. Bührle. Festschrift zu Ehren von Emil G. Bührle zur Eröffnung des Kunsthaus-Neubaus und Katalog der Sammlung Emil G. Bührle, hrsg. von Kunsthaus Zürich, Sammlungskatalog Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, 1958, No. 169, S. 108 (ill.).