Mlle Irene Cahen D’Anvers

Mlle Irene Cahen D'Anvers
Mlle Irene Cahen D’Anvers

Mlle Irene Cahen D’Anvers was one of the most impressionistic portraits of  Pierre Auguste Renoir, which was a side-way portrait made for a famous banker’s daughter 8-year-old daughter Irene. The little Irene had a head of golden brown and fluffy hair which hung in her chest and waist. She was wearing a light blue dress, with her head wearing a small butterfly knot. She sat quietly and her hands put on the thighs. She looked very pale and her big eyes stared at the front, seeming to be preoccupied by some troubles.  The whole painting’s color was very bright and the elegant painting techniques. The modeling was completed by a series of fine short stroke; there was no clear line on the screen. Against the dark background, the girl with the blonde hair was particularly bright.

The little Irene had the oriental ethereal temperament and her inexplicable melancholy temperament deeply made me fall in love with her. At the age of 8, she should be happy and cheerful. But what the little Irene showed was a quiet, sedate and somewhat mature feeling. People did not know why they were fascinated by this painting. Seeing her, people could feel infected by her quietness and sadness and their impetuous and endless heart would become calm. Renoir once said, “Only when I feel that I am able to touch people in the painting, I can say I have completed this human portrait painting.” And the little Irene was such a character. I felt as if she was sitting in front of me. There was a world in her eyes, which was another world in her heart. Maybe she was imaging or in meditation. Her existence  was a kind of beauty.