Rena HASSENBERG DIT IRENE RENO (Varsovie 1884 – Paris 1953)

Portrait of an intellectual at Paris Tokyo magazine Made in 1927 Pastel on cardboard 100 x 65 cm Signed and dated lower right "Reno 1927". Irène Reno, pseudonym of Rena Hassenberg, born in Warsaw in 1884, is a French painter, draughtswoman and lithographer of Polish origin. A graduate of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Warsaw, Irène Reno moved to Paris in 1905, where she quickly found success. She took an active part in the artistic life of her time, exhibiting at the Salon d'Automne from 1907, as well as at the Salon des Tuileries. Irène Reno travels in the Crimea and throughout France. She painted many views of the Gulf of Morbihan, Saint Malo, Dieppe, Royan, Corsica, the Basque coast (Biarritz) and the Ardèche. She also brilliantly sketched many views of Paris. Irène Reno was close to the cubist painters and took part in the 1912 Salon de la Section d'Or organized by the Puteaux group. In 1925, she visited New York. Of Jewish faith, she also produced works on the Holocaust. Her paintings and watercolors reveal a particular attention to color and volume. Here, Irène Reno portrays a man of letters or the arts, holding a newspaper bearing the words "Paris Tokyo". E.V