Description

Description: This brief note, written in French, is from infamous French actress Sarah Bernhardt to French theater critic Henri Bauër. It reads: “Dear Friend, This evening after the theater I am going to the students for lunch, Montparnasse. Alas! I had forgotten it! Are you agreeable to our putting off our chat till Monday night – you could come and pick us up at the theater. I send you a kiss from my heart. Sarah”.

Written on three pages of a 5 1/4″ x 4″ folded piece of stationery edged in mourning black and bearing Bernhardt’s ubiquitous “Quand Meme” symbol. Includes original transmittal envelope. Item #A02033

Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) was one of the world’s first celebrities both because of her remarkable talent on the stage and for her notorious social life. She starred in some of the most popular French plays of the 19th and 20th centuries, including Alexandre Dumas, fils’ La Dame aux Camelias, Victor Hugo’s Ruy Bas, and Victorien Sardou’s La Tosca and Fedora. She pushed boundaries by playing male roles, such as Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and was one of the first actresses to make sound recordings and act in motion pictures. Bernhardt had a reputation for living rather eccentrically; she sometimes slept in a satin-lined coffin and her home was filled with several exotic animals, including a champagne-drinking alligator. She also worked as a courtesan and had a variety of prominent lovers, including a Belgian nobleman, Charles-Joseph Eugène Henri Georges Lamoral de Ligne (1837–1914), eldest son of Eugène, 8th Prince of Ligne, with whom she bore her only child, Maurice Bernhardt (1864–1928).

Henri Bauër (1851-1915) was the illegitimate son of Alexandre Dumas. He held an influential position as a journalist and theater critic at the daily newspaper L’Écho de Paris, where he devoted himself extensively to the new literature, particularly naturalism. Bauër had a particular fondness for Sarah Bernhardt, whose performances he praised in numerous enthusiastic articles, and with whom he had a passionate dalliance that lasted seven years.

Condition: Very good condition with a large, strong signature.