Sarah Bernhardt 1864

Curator: Nadar’s 1864 photograph, “Sarah Bernhardt,” captured when she was quite young, presents a captivating figure against a simple backdrop. It's a gelatin silver print that really highlights her theatrical flair, even offstage. Editor: Oh, my! Her eyes…they have that look of someone about to burst into laughter, or tears, maybe both? She just seems full of a restless, almost dangerous energy. Curator: Precisely. We need to consider the performance of femininity during this period. Photography, as a relatively new medium, provided avenues for women to construct and disseminate their own images. Bernhardt, as a burgeoning actress, was keenly aware of the power of visual representation. Editor: I love how the fabric just seems to swallow her. The way it's draped...almost like she’s both hiding and revealing herself all at once. Makes you wonder what stories it could tell, right? Or maybe that’s just my overly active imagination. Curator: I wouldn't dismiss that feeling. The fabric can symbolize a blurring of boundaries – public persona versus private self, control versus vulnerability. As Bernhardt cultivated her career, she pushed against societal limitations placed on women, and you see a certain ambivalence towards these constraints in her portraits. Editor: So you think she was using images like this one to kind of shape her own narrative? Like a really early form of personal branding? Curator: Absolutely. Think about the rise of celebrity culture during the late 19th century. Photography allowed performers like Bernhardt to exert a level of control over their public image that was unprecedented. It let her carefully project herself as the unique genius that she truly was. This image can tell us a lot about agency, self-fashioning, and the socio-political context in which women performers operated. Editor: Fascinating. When you see the photo, her expression looks as though she's on the precipice of something huge, you almost want to nudge her to tell you all her secrets. It's interesting how this gelatin silver print still holds the whispers and rebellious aura of a very young, daring artist. Curator: Exactly. Thinking about images like this one can help us expand on our understandings about gender and representation then and now.