Sarah Bernhardt
photographer
Melandri
(active Paris, 1860 - 1883)
Dateabout 1879
Place MadeParis, Ile-de-France, France, Europe
MediumGelatin silver print
Dimensions16.5 x 10.8 cm (6 1/2 x 4 1/4 in.)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberP27w80
eMuseum ID717888
EmbARK ObjectID23215
TMS Source ID8350
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryIsabella Stewart Gardner loved music and theater and was a patron of the performing arts. She befriended musicians and actors and memorialized them in the fifteen glass-topped cases she installed in her museum's galleries. One of her theatrical friends was French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923). Isabella displayed this photograph of her in the costume of the Queen in the play 'Ruy Blas' by Victor Hugo in the Modern Actors Case in the Long Gallery.
MarksNotesInscribed in pen in Isabella Stewart Gardner's hand (recto bottom center): The Queen in Ruy Blas- Bernhardt
Printed in red ink (recto, bottom): Melandri Paris
Printed in red ink (verso, center): Melandri / 19, Rue Clauzel
Printed in red ink (recto, bottom): Melandri Paris
Printed in red ink (verso, center): Melandri / 19, Rue Clauzel
ProvenanceNotesPossibly a gift from the actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) to Isabella Stewart Gardner in the early 20th century.
Boston Evening Transcript
26 March 1923
Notman Photo Co.
about 1889
