Jules Bastien-Lepage

This study for Bastien-Lepage’s celebrated ‘Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt’, lauded at the 1879 Salon and won him the cross of the Legion of Honour, is the only known pencil study of the work. Bernhardt was the greatest star of her era and the first real global superstar. ‘The Divine Sarah’ was renowned as much for her breath-taking performances as her colourful personal life.

A beautiful work in its own right, with its softness of modelling, it efficiently captures all the emotion and poise of the final piece. While Bastien-Lepage sketched Bernhardt several times and sketches survive there are no other known pencil studies. On the reverse of this sheet is a sketch, very likely of Bernhardt, due to the similarity in the mouth, nose and hat. It makes for an interesting comparison and illustrates the artist's two working methods, with the sketch showing Bernhardt seen from underneath so better to understand her features. Alongside acting Bernhardt also sculpted, which is alluded to in the final piece as she looks down at a statuette of Orpheus, showing both her devotion to acting and skill as a sculptor. Furthermore Bastien-Lepage suggests her power as an actress in the sense of drama held in her gaze and also the extravagant dress and necktie she wears.

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Bernhardt was the daughter of a courtesan to the upper classes, a profession Sarah followed her into. Through this she garnered a rich social life and created notoriety off stage with her eccentric and wild lifestyle, taking both male and female lovers throughout her life, and many of them. Adding to her myth she had a fixation with the macabre - to prepare for roles she was known to sleep in a coffin and she had her own tomb built thirty years before her death. More than just a great actress who achieved global superstardom, she was also a businesswoman, theatre director, fashion icon and visionary. She came to define a particularly vibrant period in French history and very much became a national treasure. Her legacy endures to this day and in 2023 the Petit Palais curated a large exhibition devoted to her, which featured Bastien-Lepage’s final painting.

Despite Bastien-Lepage’s short career, dying from cancer aged 36, he was hugely influential. His initial recognition came from his sincere depictions of workers and family members from the Meuse area where he was from. While classically trained, under Alexandre Cabanel at the École des Beaux-arts he was more interested in the search for truth and authenticity. The influence of the realism of Courbet and Millet in his work is clear, however his work has less of a politicised moral message and contains simply more just an honest portrayal of oft disregarded people. His career started at a particularly poignant time in French painting, and painting in general, with the rise of Impressionism. It was a movement which Bastien-Lepage had a dialogue with and he became something of a bridge between the radicality of it and a more conventional approach. He had a strong following and influence both in France and abroad, George Clausen in Britain particularly based his early style around him and wrote appreciatively and at length about him. The truth and candour seen in his depictions of working people from his local area can also be seen in his portraiture, which received huge acclaim. This sensitivity and humanity, and also the theatricality of his portrait of Sarah Bernhardt led to him receiving several important commissions thereafter, including The Prince of Wales along with many others.

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