Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt

Bernhardt was an admirer of Bastien-Lepage, at least since his painting l'Annonciation aux Bergers had narrowly lost the Prix de Rome in 1875. When the two met personally, probably in 1878, Bastien-Lepage already had the intention of inviting her to sit for a portrait. At the time, Bernhardt told him about how she put a bouquet of flowers in front of the painting as a sort of tribute. When asked if he remembered the bouquet, Bastien-Lepage answered that he had kept it with him since then.^[3][4]

The sessions where Bernhardt sat for the portrait seem to have been many and tiring, despite its small format; a source claims there were actually forty-five. Bastien-Lepage decided to portray Bernhardt seated, in profile, looking away from the viewer and into a statuette of Orpheus that she holds with both hands. She is dressed very elegantly, in accordance with the fashion of the time, in a dress with silk brocades, and wearing a flamboyant chiffon. Her clothing is very white-blueish, while the background matches the clarity of her outfit and of her seat. It was Bastien-Lepage who suggested she hold the small sculpture of Orpheus, which she seems to be watching carefully, perhaps as a tribute to her ambitions in sculpture. According to the Christie's website: "Orpheus thus embodies the ars longa that Bernhardt hoped to achieve in her sculpture and that was merely ephemeral in her stage appearances. Nevertheless, by 1879, these very performances, and the gossip they engendered, were at the root of her notoriety."^[5]