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second french empireconcept:era modern

Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt

Albumen silver print by Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon), 1864. Bibliothèque nationale de France (and multiple museum collections). Portrait of the actress Sarah Bernhardt at approximately 19–20 years old. Iconic example of Nadar's celebrity portrait style.

Scholarly Significance

Anchor the early photography cluster; Nadar's Bernhardt portrait exemplifies photography's claim to psychological depth, the new celebrity culture, and the hostile reception photography faced from fine art critics.

Patronage Context

Nadar's commercial portrait studio operated on a fee-for-sitting basis. Sarah Bernhardt became a long-term subject of Nadar's camera, with multiple sessions across her career.

Notes

  • ·Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923) was at the beginning of her career at the Comédie-Française in 1864; the portrait predates her international celebrity.
  • ·Multiple prints of the 1864 session are held across institutions including the BnF, the George Eastman Museum, and various private collections.
  • ·Nadar's studio at rue des Capucines was the site of the first Impressionist exhibition in April 1874, a decade after this portrait.
  • ·The albumen print process used here was the dominant photographic printing method 1850–1895.