Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) was a French stage actress who was arguably the most famous actress of the 19th century. She deliberately cultivated an aura about herself using every form of media, earning such titles as “the Divine Sarah” and the “Sacred Monster.” In France and other countries, her image was endlessly circulated in paintings, engravings, photographs, statues, posters, advertisements, and satirical drawings. This puzzle, consisting of ten postcards, displays her silhouette in her most famous roles, female and male, tragic and dramatic. Throughout her career, Bernhardt reinterpreted many classic roles, such as in the title role in Phèdre by Jean Racine (1639-99), but she also played many roles that contemporary authors created just for her, for example in such plays as <em>The Passer-By</em> (1869) by François Coppée (1842-1908), <em>Frou-Frou</em> (1883) by Henri Meilhac (1831-97) and Ludovic Halévy (1834-1908), <em>Theodora</em> (1884) by Victorien Sardou (1831-1908), and <em>The Eaglet</em> (1900) by Edmond Rostand (1868-1918).
<br>Actors; Bernhardt, Sarah, 1844-1923; Postcards; Puzzles
Croissant, Paris (mark at lower right)
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.wdl.org/en/item/3029/">World Digital Library</a>; contributed by Bibliothèque nationale de France