Historical Figures Codexery

Sarah Bernhardt

The divine Sarah: French stage actress, sculptor, and pioneer of sound recordings and motion pictures.

Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage actress born Henriette-Rosine Bernard on 22 October 1844 in Paris.[1] She starred in major French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including La Dame aux Camélias and La Tosca.[2] The Larousse encyclopedia describes her as "reine de l'attitude et princesse du geste" and notes her "voix d'or".[3]

Quick Facts

Birth name
Henriette-Rosine Bernard
Born
22 October 1844
Birthplace
Paris, France
Died
26 March 1923
Resting place
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Occupation
Actress
Years active
1862–1923
Children
1

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Bernhardt was the daughter of Judith Bernard, a Dutch Jewish courtesan, and an attorney from Le Havre.[1] She gave birth to her only child, Maurice Bernhardt, on 22 December 1864.[4] In 1880 she resigned from the Comédie-Française and created her own company, touring worldwide.[3] After an accident, her leg was amputated in 1915.[3]

Bernhardt's mother initially arranged for her to stay with a nurse in Brittany, and later she lived in a cottage located in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a Paris suburb.[5] From January 1860 until 1862, she received acting instruction at the Conservatory under Joseph-Isidore Samson and Jean-Baptiste Provost, both prominent actors from the Comédie-Française.[5] On 31 August 1862, Bernhardt first appeared with the Comédie-Française company, performing the title character in Racine's Iphigénie.[6]

What the cited sources add

Bernhardt then offered Mucha a contract for stage and costume designs as well as posters.[7] A 2006 Independent article notes that Bernhardt kept acting until her death in 1923, despite losing her right leg in 1915.[8] The same article reports that Bernhardt studied nature to improve her acting and spent two years at the Paris Conservatoire.[8] A Guardian review of a Bernhardt biography states she never toured without her own coffin and once traveled America with an alligator called Ali-Gaga.[9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Sarah Bernhardt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Larousse, "Encyclopédie Larousse en ligne – Henriette Rosine Bernard dite Sarah Bernhardt", www.larousse.fr; Some uncertainty exists about the date. See Encyclopædia Britannica online Tierchant (2009), page 15 and Skinner (1967) page 1, and section below on birthdate; "Sarah Bernhardt: French actress"; Blume, "Sarah Bernhardt and the Divine Lie", The New York Times, 7 October 2000; Williams, "Sarah Bernhardt: Was she the first 'A-list' actress?", BBC Culture, 15 December 2017; Koenig, "Sarah Bernhardt: Goddess with a golden voice", The en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Sarah Bernhardt" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Larousse, "Encyclopédie Larousse en ligne – Henriette Rosine Bernard dite Sarah Bernhardt", www.larousse.fr. facts only, no text reused. larousse.fr
  4. Wikipedia, "Sarah Bernhardt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Skinner 1967 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Sarah Bernhardt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bernhardt 2000 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Sarah Bernhardt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tierchant 2009; In her memoirs, Bernhardt gives the date of her debut as 1 September. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. "- Sarah Bernhardt - Themes - Gallery", Muchafoundation.org. facts only, no text reused. muchafoundation.org
  8. Koenig, "Sarah Bernhardt: Goddess with a golden voice", The Independent, 22 February 2006. facts only, no text reused. independent.co.uk
  9. Laing, "Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt by Robert Gottlieb", The Guardian, 24 October 2010. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Sarah Bernhardt (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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