Sarah Bernhardt

It is difficult to find in the annals of women's biographies a more scandalous, more eccentric personality than Sarah Bernhardt. She brought her “acting” to its full logical conclusion, not only on stage, but also in life, she performed this incredibly difficult role from beginning to end with such purity and impeccability, with such an effort of will that you simply wonder: what was more in this posture - a natural inclination or acquired ambition, innate strength or a trained habit of crushing everything around. And although the actress herself in her memoirs slyly, pretending to be a “poor lamb,” writes off incredible rumors about herself to the “yellow” press and malicious journalists bribed by enemies, no one more than Sarah tried to deliberately surround her own existence
an impenetrable cloud of rumors. And the freedom of morals, barely covered by an invented virtue, arouses even greater curiosity of the average person, just as the “pink” innocence of a courtesan attracts more than obvious vulgarity. Probably, Sarah Bernhardt can be recognized as the first “star” of the stage who “made” her name through a scandal.

It is difficult to say how much of her originality came directly from her nature, but the actress very early understood how advantageously this very difference from anyone else could be used. Even as a child, Sarah suffered from bouts of wild anger, which she cleverly explained by her health condition. But it was precisely the violent fits that the girl had from time to time that allowed Sarah to get her way with adults who were always busy with business. Perhaps, if Sarah had caring, moral parents, the world would have lost the pleasure of seeing a great artist and delving into gossip about her, but, fortunately, society’s ideas about integrity are never embodied literally.

Sarina’s parents did not fit well into the usual paternal ideals. Her mother, the Dutch Jew Judith Hart, is usually listed in biographies of the great artist as a music teacher, but in reality she was a beautiful, high-ranking, elite kept woman, who, by the nature of her work, was required to primarily cherish her own person. The illegitimate daughter Sarah was born sickly, predisposed to tuberculosis, and although the mother had some feelings for the child, they did not extend beyond the tenderness of Penochka (this was the only name to which five-year-old Sarah responded). Researchers generally have doubts about the father’s identity. It is usually customary to call engineer Edouard Bernard the father of the artist, but to this day there is no exact evidence of this.

Finally after some unsuccessful attempts to place his daughter in a decent educational institution, the father allegedly (according to Sarah herself) decided to send the girl to a boarding school at the Grand Chan monastery. Thus, the first paradoxical page appeared in the biography of the great actress, which Sarah would later use with pleasure - as if she passionately wanted to become a nun, but chance did not allow it. The institution where our heroine ended up was distinguished by its humane methods and care for its students. The sisters of the monastery replaced little Sarah with a non-existent family. The rebellious, sickly girl was sincerely loved and pampered by the abbess, Mother Sophia. However, this kind woman had difficulty restraining Sarino’s unbridled rage, which made itself felt from time to time. Bernard left Grand Chan with a scandal, due to her fantastic stubbornness and defiant desire for publicity.

Sarah grabbed the shako of a soldier who had thrown his headdress over the monastery fence, and climbed onto the high sports ground, teasing the joker. Having achieved the delight of her “comrades,” Sarah realized that the game had gone far only when she tried to drag the ladder she had climbed onto the platform, but the heavy wooden structure fell and split with a roar. As a result, the girl found herself cut off from the ground. Considerable troubles disrupted the measured life of the monastery. After this adventure, Sarah fell ill, and in addition, the inappropriateness of being “such a beast” among the beautiful nuns became clearly visible, and the girl was sent home.

Her further fate was determined by family council. Since a rich inheritance was not expected for Sarah, and marrying a wealthy leather merchant, in the opinion of her mother, was something shameful and since Sarah was not destined to become a nun, Judith’s then lover - Comte de Morny, half-brother of Napoleon III - decided that the girl should be sent to a conservatory; fortunately, a high-ranking family friend had plenty of connections. Today no one knows for sure what helped the count so correctly determine Sarah’s future, but the girl’s fanatical narcissism and rare inner freedom probably played an important role.

Having successfully passed the entrance exams, Sarah immediately attracted the attention of teachers. At the annual competition of the conservatory, the girl received two prizes - the second for a tragic role and the first for a comic role. An unusually beautiful voice, the plasticity of a cat, an expressive appearance - all these features made one take a closer look at the young actress, and soon Sarah received an offer to play one-off performances at the most prestigious French theater, the Comédie Française. However, going to an appointment with the director to discuss her first contract, Sarah took with her her younger sister, who by that time was five years old. A girl, as “well-bred” as Sarah, in the director’s office began to climb on chairs, jump over stools, and throw papers out of the trash can. When the respected monsieur made a remark to the artist’s sister, the little prankster, without thinking much, blurted out: “And about you, sir, if you pester me, I will tell everyone that you are a master of making empty promises. This is my aunt speaking!

Sarah almost had a stroke. She dragged her stupid sister along the corridor, who howled heart-rendingly, and in the fiacre she began that terrible attack of anger, which almost led to the murder of the simple-minded child. But despite the failure of the first negotiations, a year later, in 1862, Sarah Bernhardt successfully debuted at the Comédie Française in the role of Iphigenie in Racine’s tragedy “Iphigenie in Aulis.” One of the critics, Francis Sarce, later even became famous for being the first to notice the young talent, predicting a brilliant future for him.

But Sarah did not stay long in the famous theater. Her little sister was again to blame for the scandal that happened this time. Well, just an “evil angel” of poor Sarah! Bernard herself said that on Moliere’s birthday (and the Comédie Française is called the home of this great playwright), according to tradition, all the theater artists approached the bust of their patron with greetings. At the ceremony, Sarah’s little sister allegedly stepped on the train of the stage prima, the so-called “sauceter,” Natalie. The old, angry, grumpy woman sharply pushed the culprit away, and the girl allegedly smashed her face into a bloody column on a column. With a cry: “Evil creature!” - Bernard attacked her colleague. The fight took place with a clear preponderance of forces in favor of youth. Sarah was soon forced to leave the famous stage in disgrace. Agree, aren’t there too many scandals due to the fault of the poor little sister...

It seemed that the actress would not recover from such an embarrassment soon, but the very next day after the contract was broken, Sarah visited the Gymnaz theater and was accepted into the troupe.

A difficult period has come in her life - everyday life similar to one another, rehearsals, readings of plays, mediocre performances. For Sarah's active nature, such peace and quiet became unbearable torture. No one wanted to recognize her as a brilliant actress, no one admired her, and in such an environment she could wither like a flower without water. Frightened by the gloomy prospects, Sarah, in a moment of despair, decided to go into business and for this she found a suitable confectionery store. Only the irresistible boredom that wafted over her from the counters filled with roasted almonds, sweets and sweet cakes kept Bernard from taking a rash step.

But she would not have become a great artist if she had not been prone to unexpected, adventurous actions. After another terrible performance, Sarah secretly disappeared from Paris at the height of the season. They searched for her with the police almost throughout France. And she went to Spain, ate tangerines there and enjoyed her vacation. Having provoked another scandal, our heroine parted with the hated theater with a light heart and immediately received a new invitation to the Odeon.

It was this imperial theater that opened Bernard's path to fame. Sarah believed that she felt the first happy rapture of the stage on the stage of the Odeon, and the first delight of the audience from her performance pierced the hall of the Odeon. U
Sarah gained many fans, especially among students, she became popular, young people fell in love with her for her courage and relaxedness, for the fact that the actress declared the ideals of the new France. Sarah Bernhardt becomes an actress of the emerging romantic movement in the theater. Her showiness and ardor captivate the viewer; she is a divine symbol of the romantic beauty of Rostand, Hugo, and Dumas son. One Russian critic compared the French actress’s performance to lovely figurines that one would love to put on one’s fireplace.

Sarah, who loved luxury and pleasure, herself became the item that was included in the mandatory list of luxurious social entertainment. During her lifetime, the artist made herself an object of cult. The delighted Victor Hugo knelt before Sarah Bernhardt right on stage after the premiere of one of his tragedies. But not only exalted artists prostrated themselves before the actress. The powers that be vying with each other demonstrated their love for the celebrity. Sarah had magical influence on men and women, and the whole high society adored her. The brochure “The Loves of Sarah Bernhardt” boldly suggested that she had seduced all the heads of state of Europe, including the Pope. Of course, this is mere hyperbole, but there is evidence that she did have a “special relationship” with the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) and with Prince Napoleon, the nephew of Napoleon I, whom George Sand introduced her to. As for the other leaders, if she did not occupy their beds, she won their hearts. She was showered with gifts by Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, King Alfonso of Spain and King Umberto of Italy. King Christian IX of Denmark put his yacht at her disposal, and Duke Frederick allowed her to use his family castle.

Probably, objectively, Sarah Bernhardt was not the most talented actress of her time, but she became the most prominent stage personality of that era. The performance of the role of Marguerite Gautier in “The Lady of the Camellias” by Alexandre Dumas son led the audience into hysterical ecstasy. It is unlikely that any of the enthusiastic admirers thought about true art; rather, in the fanatical worship of the “star” the usual instinct of the crowd was discerned, the desire to be involved in the “deity”.

Sarah tried to stand out in everything. And the only thing that really distinguished Bernard from everyone else was her unusually powerful energy. She knew how to do a hundred things at once. Nobody knew when she slept. Rostand recalled the actress this way: “Running towards dark stage; revives with his appearance a whole crowd of people yawning and languishing here in the twilight; walks, moves, lights up everyone and everything she touches; sits down in front of the prompter's booth; begins to stage the play, indicates gestures, intonations; jumps up as if stung, demands to be repeated, growls with rage, sits down, drinks tea again; starts rehearsing herself..."

Bernard was one of the first among celebrities to understand that charity and a small amount of sympathy for the disadvantaged would add additional flair to her name. During the war of 1870, the artist remained in besieged Paris and even set up (fortunately, her name also works flawlessly on officials) in the Odeon theater a hospital for the wounded. In this act of Sarah there was both a desire to help and an irresistible narcissism.

In the hospital, admirers flocked to the artist, despite the martial law. Bernard happily signed autographs. One day she gave her photograph to an ardent nineteen-year-old boy named Ferdinand Foch. In 1915, Sarah Bernhardt was accompanied by Marshal Ferdinand Foch on a trip to the fronts of the First World War.

“Forgetting” about the contract with Odeon, the artist, seduced by astronomical fees, returned to the Comedy Francaise, where she successfully worked until 1880. There was probably not a single day when the newspapers did not write about another sensation associated with Sarah Bernhardt. Either the actress buys a panther “for personal use”, then she “flies” on hot-air balloon, then finally receives the interviewer, reclining in a coffin. There was a lot of gossip about the “star’s” latest oddity. One of the spiteful critics even claimed that Sarah prefers to make love on this funeral bed, which drives men crazy.
The culprit herself, with childish spontaneity, explained the existence of the coffin in her room due to the limited square footage. They say that my little sister was dying, and there was nowhere to put the coffin - so they “stuffed” it into Sarina’s room. Well, you obviously can’t sleep in the same bed with a sick woman, so the poor artist had to make a bed for herself in a coffin. Sometimes she learned the roles right away. In general, Sarah did not want to shock anyone; the journalists, who were simply trying to make money on her name, made such a prosaic fact downright ominous.

Having finally fallen out with the management of the House of Molière, in 1893 Bernard acquired the Renaissance Theater, and in 1898 the theater on Place du Châtelet, which was called the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre.

The artist did not leave this beloved creation until her death. Even when her leg was amputated in 1914, Sarah continued to play with the prosthesis. This spectacle, apparently, was not for the faint of heart. Bernard, who always boasted of her “skeletal” thinness, flaunted her fragile figure and successfully used fainting to defuse the situation, in her old age became fat and flabby, and her health was by no means weak. She resolutely despised pragmatic opinions that it was time for her to leave the stage, that nothing remained of her former charm. She considered herself above sympathetic whispers, above generally accepted norms, above, finally, above nature itself. Sarah continued to play.
Marina Tsvetaeva, who rushed to Paris in her early youth to see the legendary Sarah with her own eyes, was shocked. Bernard played the role of a twenty-year-old youth in Rostand's The Eaglet. The actress turned 65 and walked on a prosthesis. “She played in the era of whalebone corsets, which emphasized all the roundness female figure, a twenty-year-old youth in a tight-fitting white uniform and officer's leggings; no matter how majestic it was... the spectacle of unbending old age, it smacked of the grotesque and also turned out to be a kind of tomb erected by Sarah and Rostand, and Rostanov’s “Eaglet”; as well as a monument to blind acting heroism. If only the audience were also blind...” Tsvetaeva called this “egocentric courage.”

And yet she achieved her goal - exorbitant ambition and unprecedented energy melted into genuine recognition. Sarah went down in theater history and cultural history as the greatest actress of the 19th century.

“Divine Sarah” - it was there that the public called one of the most famous actresses late 19th - early 20th centuries Sarah Bernhardt. Her extraordinary appearance, dramatic talent, and magical energy made her then famous throughout the world. Chekhov wrote: “When playing, she pursues not naturalness, but unusualness. Its goal is to amaze, surprise, dazzle..."

Felix Nadar, whom his contemporaries nicknamed the “Titian of photography.”

Sarah Bernhardt was one of the three illegitimate daughters of Judith Bernard (von Hard), a dressmaker of Dutch-Jewish origin. The beautiful Judith appeared in Paris as a courtesan, she was visited by Dumas (father and son), Rossini and the Duke de Morny. “This was a family,” wrote the actress’s enemies, the Goncourt brothers, in their famous “Journal”. “The mother forced her daughters to be prostitutes when they were not yet 13 years old.”
As for Sarah Bernhardt's father, it is difficult to establish who he is. Many believe that this is a French naval officer named Morel.
Until the age of five, Sarah lived with a wet nurse. Then she stayed at Madame Fressard's boarding house and the Grand-Champs monastery. At the age of fourteen, Sarah ends up in Paris, where her mother hires her a teacher. Then, on the advice of the Duke de Morny, Bernard was sent to the Paris Conservatory. Sarah studied in drama classes with Provost and Sanson.
On the recommendation of Dumas the Father and the Duke de Morny, she receives an engagement at the Comédie Française. On September 1, 1862, Bernard made her debut on the famous stage in the role of Iphigenie (Iphigenie in Aulis by Racine). Francis Sarcet wrote in Opignon National: “Mademoiselle Bernard, who made her debut yesterday in Iphigenie, is a tall, slender girl of pleasant appearance, she is especially beautiful top part faces. She carries herself well and has impeccable diction.”
But already in next year, after she hit another actress in a fit of anger, Bernard left the Comédie Française. Thus began her complex and stormy artistic life.
Sarah received an engagement at the Gymnaz theater and here for the first time demonstrated both her outstanding talent as a dramatic actress and her unpredictable character: on the eve of the performance of Labiche's play, in which she played the main role, she suddenly left Paris, leaving only a letter to the author, ending with the words: “ forgive the poor madwoman.” After making a rather long trip around Spain, Bernard returned to Paris.
Her first known lover was the Comte de Kératry. But a stronger feeling connected Bernard with Prince de Ligne, with whom she gave birth to a son, Maurice. Subsequently, de Ligne invited Maurice to recognize him and give him his name, but he refused.
So, at twenty years old, Sarah is a young actress who has suffered a fiasco, with a son to feed, and many good friends. She performed briefly at the Port-Saint-Martin theater, and then moved to the Odeon.
In the play “The Testament of Giraudot” she successfully played the role of Hortense, and in A. Dumas’ play “Kin” - Anna Demby. After the premiere of “Kin”, which took place on February 18, 1868, a reviewer of “Le Figaro” wrote: “Mademoiselle Sarah Bernhardt appears in an eccentric costume, which further fuels the raging elements, but her warm voice, an extraordinary amazing voice, penetrates the hearts of the audience. She curbed and conquered them, like the sweet Orpheus!” Bernard also did an excellent job with the role of Zanetto in the lyrical-dramatic play by the modern playwright Coppe “The Passer-by” (1869). This is the role of a boy, a young man. And Sarah was thin, angularly graceful, with the flat forms of an undeveloped woman, with an unusually melodious voice, like a harp, and created a sensation.

Sarah had enormous success in the dramas of Shakespeare and Racine. She became the idol of students and received bouquets of violets, sonnets, poems from fans...
During the war of 1870, instead of leaving with her family, Sarah Bernhardt remained in besieged Paris, set up a hospital in the Odeon theater, devoting herself entirely to the wounded and giving up even her artist's room, and all this with that amazing ease that testifies to true courage, with that gaiety without which any sacrifice becomes unbearable. One day, Sarah Bernhardt received a wounded young man in the hospital who asked her for an autographed photograph. He was nineteen years old, and the name of the future Marshal of France was Ferdinand Foch...
The day of January 26, 1872 became a true celebration of acting for the Odeon. Bernard's appearance as the Queen in Victor Hugo's Ruy Blase was truly triumphant. “Thank you, thank you,” the author exclaimed, kissing her hands after the premiere of the play.
After his triumph on the stage of the Odeon, Bernard returns to the Comédie Française. On August 22, she played the role of Andromache with great success. Her partner and lover Mounet-Sully was simply magnificent in the role of Orestes.
Subsequently, the actress played Phaedra, but with even greater success the second heroine of the tragedy, Arisia. Then they wrote: “Whoever has not seen and heard Sarah in Arisia and Mune-Sully in Hippolyte does not know what genius, youth and beauty are!”
At the Comedy Française theater, Sarah Bernhardt shone in the tragedies of Racine and Voltaire (especially in “Zaire”), which were, as it were, a touchstone for the actress in the role of tragic heroines. True, some critics pointed out the lack of a tragic temperament, but still the actress’s performance in certain scenes made it possible for theater experts to compare her with Rachel.
In 1875, on the quiet green and quite prestigious Avenue de Villiers, Sarah Bernhardt built herself a mansion. The architect was Felix Escalier, who was fashionable in those years, and dozens of artists and sculptors contributed to the interior decoration of the house. Competing with each other, they painted walls and ceilings, decorated the staircase and winter garden, and came up with original interior solutions.
Suddenly, Sarah Bernhardt was inflamed with a passion for sculpting. Friends visited her in the studio: they sat around Sarah, sang, played the piano, argued fiercely about politics - the actress received the most prominent representatives of various parties. Adolphe de Rothschild himself ordered his bust from her.
One day she was informed about the arrival of Alexandre Dumas. He brought the good news that he had completed a play for the Comédie Française called “The Foreign Woman,” one of the roles of which, the role of the Duchess de Setmont, would suit her perfectly. At the time when the Comedie Française theater was rehearsing the comedy “The Foreigner,” the famous Italian actor Ernesto Rossi was in Paris. He told:
“According to rumors, Dumas was in a depressed mood and was afraid of the failure of his new play, where the main role of the Foreigner was specially written for Sarah Bernhardt, taking into account her external data, structure of feelings, character and nervous makeup. However, the actress refused to play the heroine, preferring she played the role of the Countess, intended for Mademoiselle Croisette. Therefore, she worked without any interest and carelessly. Without saying a word to anyone, I came to the theater and, unnoticed, slipped into the box, began to follow what was happening on stage. The actors rehearsed with enthusiasm , and only Sarah, holding the text in front of her, muttered something under her breath. Dumas, sitting next to the prompter booth, was nervous and fidgeted in his chair with impatience. The very scene where the Foreigner, breaking coffee cup, leaves the marquis's house. Although Sarah Bernhardt rehearsed at half strength, she was nevertheless so natural and natural that everything seemed to happen by itself, that there was no play, no preliminary thoughts and reflections. She pronounced the text with everyday carelessness, cared little about the picturesqueness of her movements and left the stage through the middle door. Then Dumas, unable to bear it, rose from his seat and said: “Listen, Sarah, if you play like that at the premiere, we are lost.”
“You idiots,” I thought, hiding in a corner, “you are not lost, but saved.” Without delving into the character of her heroine, Sarah, on a whim, got to its essence, to its truth. Thanks to her masterful acting, the play became flesh. The premiere was supposed to take place in a few days. Everyone predicted failure, and Sarah herself probably did not believe in success. But as soon as she walked on stage and walked away the way she did at rehearsal, the audience howled with delight. The fate of “Foreigner” was decided. Sarah did not expect this and, amazed by the audience’s reception, carried the role to the end with inspiration and intelligence.”
“Sarah Bernhardt is completely unlike any actress of the past or present,” continues Ernesto Rossi. “This is a completely new type of artist, strange, if you like, but nevertheless new. Everything in her work and even in her personal life is strikingly eccentric.”

The premiere of Victor Hugo's Hernani, which took place on November 21, 1877, was a triumph for both the author and all the performers. The role of Hernani was played by Mounet-Sully. Bernard played Doña Sol. After the performance, Victor Hugo sent her the following letter: “Madame! You were enchanting in your greatness. You excited me, an old fighter, to such an extent that in one place, when the touched and enchanted spectators applauded you, I cried. I give you these tears that you pulled from my chest, and I bow before you.”
New success on the Comedy stage finally made Sarah Bernhardt a favorite of the public. In 1877 she became a societer. Her colleagues did not perceive this without jealousy.
Meanwhile, Bernard decided to take up painting: “I knew how to draw a little, and I was especially good at color. To begin with, I made two or three small paintings, and then painted a portrait of my dear Gerard. Alfred Stevens found it very skillfully made, and Georges Clairin praised me and advised me to continue my studies.”
During the Paris Exhibition of 1878, Bernard took to the air every day in Mr. Giffard's tethered balloon. Then, together with the scientist, she made an air trip, testifying to the fearless character of Sarah Bernhardt. The balloon rose to a height of 2600 meters from the ground. The magical flight inspired Sarah to write a charming novella, “Among the Clouds.”
In 1879, the Comedie Française toured London. Sarah Bernhardt becomes the favorite of the English public. After “Phaedra” she receives an ovation “unparalleled in the history of English theater.” Sarah Bernhardt turned one of the scenes into a complete “picture”, as meaningful as a masterpiece of painting: after a frank conversation with her confidante Oenone, her Phaedra “sits in a chair, seemingly calm and as if half-dead, and freezes in a motionless pose with prostrate hands, with a faded gaze - this gives a magnificent image as if before death dead woman..."
Comedie Française returns to Paris. And soon Sarah Bernhardt left this theater for the second time. This happened after the premiere of “The Adventuress” (April 17, 1880).
Sarah was eager to leave the theater, which seemed academic to her and far from everything new in theater arts. The Parisian public, too jaded, gradually began to get used to the noble seduction of themselves and yawn with boredom when they heard about Bernard's next success.
And she could not allow this to the public. She herself becomes her own impresario with her own theater and troupe, and any failure could force her to sell jewelry, costumes and even her own house. During these periods, she traveled to Denmark and London, where the attention of the Prince of Gaelic gave her access to the homes of the most aristocratic families.
And each time she returned home even richer than before. But ordinary people did not forgive this; journalists, greedy for sensation, accused her of greed; “high society” ignored her. But... only until the next success, after which the great actress was forgiven all her sins.
Finally, she went on tour to America, where, according to the contract, she was supposed to play eight plays: “Ernani”, “Phaedra”, “Adrienne Lecouvreur”, “Frufrou”, “The Lady of the Camellias”, “The Sphinx”, “The Foreigner” and “The Princess” Georges." Bernard ordered thirty-six suits for a total of 61 thousand francs.

The tour lasted seven months. During this time, the actress visited fifty cities and gave one hundred and fifty-six performances. The most played was “The Lady of the Camellias” by A. Dumas - Bernard performed in it 65 times.
The role of Marguerite Gautier was one of the best in the actress’s repertoire. The famous Russian critic A. Kugel wrote about this masterpiece: “It is memorable for the tender femininity and grace of the first acts, for the grace and style of her explanations with Duval’s father, for this, some absolutely exceptional expressiveness of her crying hands and sobbing back, and least of all in scenes of inner experience and great sorrow."
In 1881, Sarah met the adviser to the Greek mission in Paris, 26-year-old handsome Jacques Damala (his real name was Aristide Damala), a friend of hers. younger sister Jeanne, also an actress. His love affairs earned him the reputation of the new Casanova and the new Marquis de Sade. At the moment of their acquaintance, Sarah was so at a loss in the face of this triumphant beauty and self-confident audacity that she even allowed him to smoke in her presence, which she did not allow anyone else to do. It was Damala who would be her husband for several months. She never married again.
Inspired by Sarah Bernhardt's success overseas, her American entrepreneur Jarette offered the actress a six-month trip to Europe.
...The tour route lay from Belgium to the Netherlands, then to Denmark and Norway, through Poland - to Vienna and Budapest (Sarah had avoided Germany since the Franco-Prussian War, as a result of which her patriotic feelings became extremely aggravated), then to the kingdom of Romania, to Iasi, from there to Odessa. Sarah Bernhardt's personal retinue included her constant confidante Madame Guérard (nicknamed Soudarushka), her chambermaid Felicie and her footman Claude. And here it should be said that despite the fantastic absurdity of the character and the whims of the actress, about which volumes of anecdotes have been written, her servants and household members loved her and were faithful to her all her life. English actress Patrick Campbell wrote in her memoirs: “The world knows of her genius and her enormous courage; but not everyone knows with what attention she treats her friends, how much love for them lurks in the depths of her heart ... "
Impresario Schürmann strictly made sure that every railway station was given a telegram in advance about the hour of Madame Sarah's arrival; telegrams were included in the cost of advertising. The news instantly spread throughout the city, and thousands of curious people flocked to the station. The arrival of the train was greeted with shouts and flowers. Welcoming speeches were made. The door of Sarah Bernhardt's carriage was besieged by fans, and the strongest of the actors, together with the impresario, habitually pave the way for her in the crowd, of course, not without the help of the police, and in Russia, mounted Cossacks. The crowd followed the actress all the way to the hotel and dispersed only after Sarah Bernhardt went out onto the balcony of her room three or four times (there was also a balcony) to greet her people. This was the case in all the cities on tour.
Sarah Bernhardt brought her favorite performances to Russia: “The Lady of the Camellias”, “The Sphinx”, “Adrienne Lecouvreur”. She amazed the theater audience with her sophistication and romantic manner of performance.
The actress's talent, her skill and great fame forced playwrights to write plays especially for her, as if making them according to the standards of her talent, taking into account the peculiarities of her manner of acting. Victorien Sardou composed lush, pseudo-historical dramas, or rather melodramas, for her. He begins his alliance with Sarah Bernhardt with the Russian play Fedora. The action takes place in St. Petersburg and Paris. The main characters were the nihilist Boris Ivanov, who killed Count Goryshkin, and the count’s widow, the beautiful Fedora, who fell in love with him. The story ends tragically...
To get the most out of Fedora, he needed an actress, who, in fact, inspired him for this play, for whom the main role was written - Sarah Bernhardt. Later, Sardou would write the plays “Tosca” (1887) and “The Witch” (1903) for the great actress.
Since the 1890s, a significant place in the actress’s repertoire was occupied by roles in Rostand’s neo-romantic dramas, also written specifically for her: “The Princess of Dreams” (1895), “The Little Eaglet” (1900), “The Samaritan Woman” (1897).
Sarah Bernhardt willingly performed in male roles (Busy in “The Passerby” by Coppe, Lorenzaccio in “Lorenzaccio” by Musset; the Duke of Reichstadt in “The Eaglet” by Rostand, etc.). Among them was the role of Hamlet (1899). This travesty of Hamlet allowed the actress to demonstrate the high perfection of technique and the “eternal youth” of her art (Sarah Bernhardt played the role of Hamlet when she was fifty-three years old). The tragic prince was played by Sarah Bernhardt with truly Parisian chic and elegance. Her Hamlet was very young and femininely handsome. French theater criticism highly appreciated the new role of the “divine Sarah,” although they noted that sometimes Shakespeare’s hero is replaced by the graceful and lively figure of a crafty and daring page, “in whose eyes poetic extravagance shines instead of the prince’s sorrow.”
In 1891, Bernard made a triumphant tour of Australia. Then he comes to Russia for the second time. This time, three roles from her repertoire attracted the attention of theatrical Russia: “Phaedra” by Racine, “The Maid of Orleans” by Barbier and “Cleopatra” by Sardou (the latter play was written for Sarah Bernhardt based on Shakespeare’s tragedy “Antony and Cleopatra”).
The image of the Egyptian queen, embodied by Sarah Bernhardt, was created with great skill. The scene with the messenger delighted with its stage technique, full of grace and artistic beauty. In her performance of Phaedra, Sarah Bernhardt brought the truth of feelings so desired on the Russian stage; and Racine's famous rhymes flowed from the stage almost like natural speech. In many places in her role, the actress amazed with the power of drama. At the same time, aesthetic strength and artistic tact did not leave her in the most tragic moments... This performance evoked enthusiastic responses from the Russian public.
After leaving the Comedie Française theater for the second time, Sarah Bernhardt repeatedly tried to create her own theater, first becoming the head of the Porte Saint-Martin theater, then in 1893 she acquired the Renaissance theater, and in 1898 - the theater on Place Chatelet, called the "Sarah Bernhardt Theatre".
During the scandal associated with the so-called “Dreyfus Affair”, on November 15, 1897, Bernard went to Zola to tell him about the injustice that had happened and urge him to fight! Emile Zola agrees with her. On November 25, he writes: “The truth has set out, and nothing will stop it...”, and on January 13, 1898, the famous “I accuse.” Immediately Zola's house is surrounded by a crowd of hostile demonstrators. Sarah Bernhardt appears. Her authority is so great that the demonstrators silently disperse. Sarah Bernhardt took risks. She is bombarded not only by the press, but also - and more importantly for her - by her adored son, the refined Maurice, who belonged to the Patriotic League. They quarreled and didn't speak for a whole year. The love of justice triumphed over maternal love, and unparalleled love, for Sarah Bernhardt was an incomparable mother, until her last day she worked to cover the expenses of her charming son, a regular at the Jockey Club, and most importantly, gambling houses.
Sarah Bernhardt was admired by both the aristocratic public and ordinary people. To them we can add Proust and James, Dickens and Wilde, Twain and Hugo, who spoke enthusiastically about her talent. Stanislavski considered Bernard's art an example of technical perfection.

Her acting aroused admiration for its aesthetic completeness. Sarah Bernhardt's manner of playing is based primarily on virtuosic external technique - on the expressiveness and plasticity of gestures, poses, movements, excellent command of a melodic voice and a carefully developed system of intonation shades of speech. Her art was a magnificent embodiment of the aesthetic principles of the “school of representation.” The actress's talent, her keen observation and brilliant technique allowed her to play convincingly and even touch the audience in roles that did not require tragic scale of thoughts and passions.
“I think that dramatic art is predominantly a female art,” writes Sarah Bernhardt in the book “My Life.” - Indeed, the desire to decorate oneself, to hide true feelings, the desire to please and attract attention are weaknesses that are often reproached by women and to which they invariably show condescension. The same shortcomings in a man are disgusting.”
Chekhov and Shaw were her opponents. Shaw, for example, describing the actress’s performance in Musset’s drama “Lorenzaccio,” talks about the interesting performance of individual scenes and regrets that the actress did not understand the complexity and contradictory nature of Lorenzaccio’s character, which combines “a demon and an angel” and “lies the horror of the depravity and meanness of the world ..." According to Shaw, Madame Bernard was unable to extract "this concept of the image from the text." Chekhov wrote: “Every breath of Sarah Bernhardt, her tears, her dying convulsions, her entire play is nothing more than an impeccably and cleverly learned lesson.”
Bernard repeatedly tried to revive dead theatrical eras and individual performances. This happened with Esther in 1905, where all the roles were played by women, and Sarah herself played the role of King Assuer.
While on tour in Brazil, playing the role of Tosca (who was supposed to commit suicide by throwing herself from a fortress tower), Bernard fell from a great height, and no one thought about protecting her with mattresses. The actress injured her knee, which had caused her suffering since childhood: at the age of seven, she jumped out of a window in the hope that her mother would take her to her.
In 1906, Bernard gives a performance in the American city of Vado. There were even cowboys here who came from Texas to see their “Camilla” (“Lady of the Camellias”), created from “tears and champagne,” as G. James wrote. One cowboy said he rode his horse 300 miles to attend a show. And now she demonstrates her dramatic repertoire in the Wild West in front of two thousand spectators, and is forced to go on stage dragging her sore leg.
Her last tour in Russia took place in 1908. On the posters of Sarah Bernhardt (at 64 years old!) there was still the same “Lady of the Camellias”, two plays by Sardou written for her - “The Witch” and “Tosca” - then “Sappho” based on the novel by Daudet, the play “Adrienne Lecouvreur ” and three male roles: “The Eaglet” created for her by Rostand, Jacas in “The Jesters” by Zamakois and Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which was performed in her benefit performance (the first act, followed by “Phaedra” by Racine).
“Do you want to know my opinion about Sarah Bernhardt? I find that she is a phenomenal phenomenon in the sense that she has overcome time and retained her charming femininity,” actress Maria Savina told newspapers.
Now Sarah Bernhardt even played halftones more often. Her rare transitions across the stage created the impression of some kind of music of movement. She no longer played the entire play, but chose a few moments into which she invested all her skill. There were no more magnificent kinks and bends of the body, no more surprising rhythms of recitation.
“The idea of ​​Russia is still alive in me,” said Sarah Bernhardt upon her arrival in St. Petersburg, “as a beautiful northern country, with its triples, which I love so much, invigorating frost, and white, white snow. But the coldness of your nature is forgotten, however, when meeting your cordiality and your enthusiasm.<…>I love Russian literature. Of your new writers, I am well acquainted with Maxim Gorky. Of your artists, I met with Chaliapin. I admire his versatile talent..."
Sarah Bernhardt was demonstratively exotic, provocative, shocking. She had a quick temperament, but just as she emphasized her thinness with clothes, so, armed with a whip, it happened that she brought her wildness to the point of frenzied grace.
Sarah Bernhardt wrote something like a manual for artists, two novels ("The Little Idol" and "The Beautiful Double"), four plays for the theater ("Adrienne Lecouvreur", "Confession", "The Heart of a Man", "Theater on the Field of Honor").
Crowds of men, including Sigmund Freud, were in love with her intelligence and exotic aura. American writer Henry James called her “a genius of self-promotion, the embodiment of female success.” She loved a lot, and each of her novels was a sensation. A predator, even at an age when a woman should calm down, she had a lot of love affairs, calling herself one of the “great mistresses of the world.” During a long tour of the United States, the 66-year-old actress met an American of Dutch origin, Lou Tellegen, who was 35 years younger than her. Their relationship lasted four years. Tellegen later called this time the best of his life!

She wore her makeup in a rather unique way. It was from her that the later usual manner of French actresses came from heavily painting their ears to set off the pallor of their faces. She made up a lot of things that were not customary to make up, like the tips of her fingers, which she painted, and then the play of her fingers acquired a special picturesque quality.
Bernard was the first great actress to appear on the screen. This happened in 1900, when a phonorama was demonstrated in Paris, providing synchronous projection of image and sound. Sarah was filmed in the scene of “Hamlet’s Duel.”
At the beginning of 1908, the film studio "Film d'ar" filmed "Tosca" with the participation of Sarah Bernhardt, Lucien Guitry and Paul Mounet. The famous actress was so dissatisfied with this first experience that, with the support of Victorien Sardou, she ensured that the film was not released on the screen.
The failure of “Tosca” alienated Sarah Bernhardt from cinema, but constant financial difficulties brought her back to the screen. Being in the grip of her creditors, who pursued her until her death, she agreed to play the role of Marguerite Gautier. Young Duvall was played by Paul Capellani.
Seeing herself on screen, the actress undoubtedly found that she was far from charming. They even said that she fainted from horror. But she could not, as was the case with Tosca, withdraw the film from distribution; it had already been sold to the whole world, and in particular to the USA. The plump actress, on whom the years have left their cruel mark, is extremely far from the image of the young and lovely consumptive girl created by Dumas the son.
Nevertheless, The Lady of the Camellias (1912) enjoyed worldwide success. Bernard received many invitations to star in new films. At first she refused. “I didn’t act,” she said in the press, “and I gave my word not to act for any company other than Film d’ar, with which I am under contract.”
However, the company soon made some concessions to her. In May 1912, Sarah Bernhardt went to London to play in the new film Queen Elizabeth. The directors of this film were Henri Desfontaines and Louis Mercanton, a trusted friend of Sarah Bernhardt who had been in her troupe for many years. "Elizabeth" had a significant influence on Hollywood style. In 1922, leading Hollywood actors sent a message to France to celebrate the film's tenth anniversary.
The huge, worldwide success of “Queen Elizabeth” created the name of Louis Mercanton. The Great Sarah expressed a desire to appear only in his films. He directed her in Adrienne Lecouvreur. After the film “The French Mothers” (1915), based on the work of Jean Richpin, Bernard agreed to a role in Mercanton’s new film, “Jeanne Doré” based on the play by Tristan Bernard. Another film with the participation of the actress, “His Best Deed” (1916), was shown to the Queen...
Absolutely stunning is the letter she once sent to her doctor, turning to him with a request: “I ask you to either amputate my leg, or do with it whatever you see fit... if you refuse, I will shoot myself in the knee and then force you to do it.” In 1915, with an amputated leg, but still wanting to benefit people, Sarah Bernhardt went to the front. She is accompanied by Marshal Ferdinand Foch.
Many years after leaving the Comedy Francaise, Sarah Bernhardt was forced to return to Racine's dramaturgy. Sick and old, Sarah Bernhardt chooses for herself the role of Athalia, who appears on stage only twice and, according to her rank, may not rise from the stretcher in which the actress spent her life. last years life.
"IN last time I had to see her in the role of Athaliah,” wrote J. Cocteau in the book “Portraits-Memoirs.” “Her leg has already been amputated. She was wheeled onto the stage in some kind of cart by blacks. She recited Athaliah's dream. Having reached the line: “To make up for irreparable damage,” she raised and pressed her ringed hands to her chest and bowed, taking this verse to herself and apologizing to the audience for still appearing before her. The hall jumped up and roared...<…>Madame Sarah Bernhardt was an example of such play at the limits of the possible both in life and on stage. The whole world was captivated by her ecstasy. She was considered consumptive, perhaps due to the fact that she had a habit of fiddling with and bringing a handkerchief to her lips, and in love scenes her lips glowed like roses. She recited in a measured, strong, tremulous voice. And suddenly she would break the rhythm, speeding up her speech in order to give some place a special meaning, all the more amazing because it was born suddenly, on a whim.”

Sarah Bernhardt was born on October 22, 1844 in Paris. Sarah's mother's name was Judith. Jewish, of either German or Dutch origin, she gave birth to Sarah at the age of sixteen. The father remained unknown. Sometimes he is considered to be Paul Morel, an officer of the French fleet (some official documents testify to this). According to another version, the father is Edouard Bernard, a young lawyer.

Before arriving in France, Judith worked as a milliner. But in Paris she chose to become a courtesan. Her pleasant appearance and ability to dress tastefully ensured her a comfortable existence at the expense of wealthy lovers. The daughter who was born prevented Judith from leading a carefree life, and therefore Sarah was sent to England, where she lived with a nanny.

She could have stayed there until she came of age, if there had not been an accident: the nanny left Sarah alone with her disabled husband, Sarah was able to get out of her chair and came too close to the fireplace, her dress caught fire. The neighbors saved Sarah. Judith was traveling around Europe at this time with another sponsor. She was called to her daughter, she came to England and took Sarah to Paris. However, she soon left her again, leaving her in the care of another nanny.

Forced to live in a dull place, in a gloomy house where her nanny brought her, Sarah withdrew into herself and lost weight. But fate still united mother and daughter. Chance meeting with Aunt Rosina, who was a courtesan like Judith, plunges Sarah into a frenzy. In a fit, she falls from the nanny's arms and breaks her arm and leg. Her mother finally takes her, and it takes several years for the lonely girl to remember what motherly love is.

Sarah was not taught to read, write, or count. She is sent to Madame Fressard's school, where she spends two years. While at school, Sarah takes part in plays for the first time. During one of the performances, she suddenly sees her mother enter the hall, deciding to visit her daughter. Sarah has a nervous attack, she forgets the entire text and “stage fright” has remained with her since then until her very last days, continuing to haunt her even during the period of her world fame.

In the fall of 1853, Sarah was sent to study at the privileged private school Grandchamps. Patronage is arranged by another admirer of Judith, the Duke of Morny.

As a teenager, Sarah was very thin and coughed constantly. The doctors examining her predicted her quick death from tuberculosis. Sarah becomes obsessed with the topic of death. Around this time they are made famous photos, where she lies in a coffin (the coffin was bought for her by her mother after much persuasion).

One day, the mother arranged a meeting of close relatives and friends, where they decided that Sarah should be quickly married off. In affectation, the girl turns her gaze to heaven and declares to those present that she has been given to God and her fate is monastic robes. Duke Morni appreciates this scene and recommends that the mother send her daughter to the conservatory.

At the same time, Sarah attends a real performance for the first time at the Comedy Française. After this, her fate was sealed.

At the age of 13, Sarah entered the drama class of the Higher National Conservatory of Dramatic Art, from which she graduated in 1862

Despite the patronage, in order to enter the conservatory, Sarah had to pass an exam before the commission. To prepare for it, she takes diction lessons. Her main teacher at this time was Alexander Dumas the father. A creative genius, he teaches Sarah how to create characters through gestures and voice. During the exam, everyone is fascinated by Sarah's voice and she easily enters the training, to which she devotes all her strength. She wins second prize in her final exam.

On September 1, 1862, Sarah Bernhardt made her debut at the Comedie Française theater in the play “Iphigenie” by Jean Racine, playing the main role.

The director of the Comédie Française expressed doubt: “She’s too skinny to become an actress!”

“When the curtain slowly began to rise, I thought I was going to faint,” Bernard recalled. Regarding her first appearance, the critics’ opinion was as follows: “The young actress was as beautiful as she was just as inexpressive...” Everyone was captivated only by the golden mass of fluffy hair.

None of the critics saw a future star in the aspiring actress; the majority believed that soon the name of this actress would quietly disappear from the posters. Soon, due to a conflict, Sarah Bernhardt stopped collaborating with Comedy Française. Her return there took place only ten years later.

After leaving the theater, difficult times began for Bernard. Little is known about the next four years of her life, except that she had several lovers during this period. But Sarah did not want to become a courtesan like her mother. On December 22, 1864, Sarah gave birth to a son, Maurice, whose father was Henri, Prince de Ligne. Forced to look for means to support and raise her son, Sarah gets a job at the Odeon Theater, the second most important of the Parisian theaters of that time.

After several not very successful roles, critics notice her in King Lear, where she plays Cordelia. The next success comes with a role in the play “Kin” by Dumas the Father, who was very pleased with the performance of his protégé.

- Madam! “You were charming in your greatness,” said Victor Hugo. - You have excited me, an old fighter. I started crying. I give you the tear that you pulled from my chest, and I bow before you.

The tear was not figurative, but diamond, and it was crowned with a chain bracelet. By the way, there were quite a few diamonds given to Sarah Bernhardt. She loved jewelry and did not part with it during her travels and tours. And to protect the jewelry, she took a pistol with her on the road. "Man is such strange creature“that this tiny and absurdly useless thing seems to me to be reliable protection,” the actress once explained her passion for firearms.

In 1869, the actress played the role of the minstrel Zanetto in “The Passerby” by François Coppet, after which success came to her. Her role as the Queen in Victor Hugo's Ruy Blase, which she played in 1872, became a triumph for her.

She worked in the theaters “Comédie Française”, “Gimnise”, “Port Saint-Martin”, “Odeon”. In 1893 it acquired the Renaissance Theater, and in 1898 the Nation Theater on Châtelet Square, which was called the Sarah Bernhardt Theater (now Théâtre de la Ville).

Stanislavsky considered Sarah Bernhardt an example of technical perfection: a beautiful voice, polished diction, plasticity, artistic taste. Theater connoisseur Prince Sergei Volkonsky highly appreciated Sarah Bernhardt's stagecraft: “She perfectly mastered the polarity of experiences - from joy to grief, from happiness to horror, from affection to rage - the finest nuance of human feelings. And then - “the famous talk, the famous whisper, the famous growl, the famous “golden voice” - la voix d’or,” noted Volkonsky. - The last stage of skill is her explosions... How she knew how to lower herself in order to jump up, gather herself in order to rush; how she knew how to take aim, crawl up to burst. The same thing is in her facial expressions: what a skill from barely noticeable inception to the highest scope..."

However, Bernard combined virtuoso skill, sophisticated technique, and artistic taste with deliberate showiness and a certain artificiality of play.

Many outstanding contemporaries, in particular A. P. Chekhov, I. S. Turgenev, A. S. Suvorin and T. L. Shchepkina-Kupernik, denied that the actress had talent, which was replaced by an extremely refined and mechanistic acting technique. Such a major success was explained by the phenomenal publicity provided to Bernard by the press, which was more related to her personal life than the theater itself, as well as the unusually inflated hype preceding the performance itself.

Among the best roles: Doña Sol (“Hernani” by Hugo), Marguerite Gautier (“The Lady of the Camellias” by Dumas the Son), Theodora (Sardou’s play of the same name), Princess Dreams, Duke of Reichstadt (in the play of the same name and “The Eaglet” by Rostand), Hamlet (Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name), Lorenzaccio (Musset's play of the same name).

Newspaper articles describing Sarah Bernhardt's tour of America and Europe sometimes resembled reports from the theater of war. Advances and sieges. Triumphs and defeats. Delights and lamentations. The name of Sarah Bernhardt in the world news often replaced economic and government crises. First Sarah Bernhardt, and only then conflicts, disasters and other incidents of the day.

On her trips, she was invariably accompanied by a retinue of reporters. Public and religious organizations They treated her differently: some sang her glory, and some blasphemed her. Many in America considered her visit “an invasion of a damned snake, a fiend of French Babylon, arriving with the goal of pouring poison into pure American morals.”

In Russia, they were waiting with interest for the “new Napoleon in a skirt,” who had already conquered all of America and Europe and was heading straight to Moscow. “Moskovskie Vedomosti” wrote: “The greats of the world showered this fairy-tale princess with honors that neither Michelangelo nor Beethoven probably ever dreamed of…” Why be surprised? Sarah Bernhardt was essentially the world's first superstar.

Sarah Bernhardt visited Russia three times - in 1881, 1898 and 1908. It was a huge success, although there were critics, including Turgenev. In a letter to Polonskaya in December 1881, he wrote: “I cannot say how angry I am with all the madness being committed about Sarah Bernhardt, this arrogant and distorted poufist, this mediocrity, who only has a lovely voice. Is it really possible that no one will tell her the truth in print?..”

What can I say about this? Turgenev's heart was completely captivated by Pauline Viardot, and there was not even a tiny corner left for Sarah Bernhardt. However, Ivan Sergeevich’s negative emotions could not overshadow Bernard’s glory. Great - she is great, even if someone does not think so.

But the stage is one thing, and life outside it is something else. Sergei Volkonsky believed that Sarah Bernhardt, outside the theater, “is an antics, she is all artificial... A tuft of red hair in front, a tuft of red hair in the back, unnaturally red lips, a powdered face, all lined up like a mask; amazing flexibility of figure, dressed like no one else - she was all “in her own way”, she herself was Sarah, and everything on her, around her smacked of Sarah. She created more than just roles - she created herself, her image, her silhouette, her type...”

She was the first superstar, hence the advertising of her name: perfume, soap, gloves, powder - “Sarah Bernhardt”. She had two husbands: one was a prince from an ancient French family, the second was an actor from Greece, unusually handsome man. But Sarah Bernhardt's main passion was theater. She lived by it, was inspired by it. She didn't want to be a thing, a toy in her hands powerful of the world This - she was engaged in painting, sculpture, and wrote funny novels and funny plays. She ventured into the sky in Giffard’s balloon, where at an altitude of 2,300 meters the daredevils “had a hearty dinner of goose liver, fresh bread and oranges. The champagne cork saluted the sky with a muffled noise..."

Sarah Bernhardt was often compared to Joan of Arc. Considered a witch. It was she who prompted Emile Zola to stand up for poor Captain Dreyfus. Her apartment was in chaos: carpets, blankets, ottomans, trinkets and other items were scattered everywhere. Dogs, monkeys and even snakes were spinning under our feet. There were skeletons in the actress’s bedroom, and she herself liked to learn some roles, reclining in a coffin upholstered in white crepe. Shocking? Without a doubt. She loved scandals and showed the world her special charms. She wrote about herself like this: “I really love it when people visit me, but I hate visiting. I love receiving letters, reading them, commenting on them; but I don’t like answering them. I hate places where people walk and love deserted roads and secluded corners. I like to give advice and I really don’t like it when they give it to me.”

Jules Renard noted: “Sarah has a rule: never think about tomorrow. Tomorrow - come what may, even death. She takes advantage of every moment... She swallows life. What an unpleasant gluttony!..”

The word “gluttony” clearly conveys envy of Sarah Bernhardt’s success.

In 1882, in St. Petersburg, Sarah experienced the most ardent love story, which finally ended in her marriage. The object of Sarah's passion was the Greek diplomat, the handsome Aristides Jacques Damalla, who was 11 years younger than her. He left his service, his career, his homeland and joined the troupe of his favorite actress. Sarah, who was in love, considered him a genius. Aristides took on the proposed role, but achieved nothing other than success with young actresses.

To assert himself, he boasted to Sarah about his victories on the intimate front and received great satisfaction if he managed to publicly humiliate the great actress. In general, something between Casanova and the Marquis de Sade. The man is not very smart, he got carried away and became a drug addict and gambler. And this is no longer acting work. There are bigger stakes here. They divorced, but when Arstidis was dying from morphine, in the last months Sarah carefully looked after her ex-husband and already worthless lover.

At the age of 66, during a tour of America, Sarah Bernhardt met Lou Tellegen, who was 35 years younger than her. Their love affair lasted more than four years. In his old age, this man admitted that the years with Sarah Bernhardt were the best years of his life.

During a 1905 tour in Rio de Janeiro, Sarah Bernhardt injured her right leg, which had to be amputated in 1915.

But, despite the injury, Sarah Bernhardt did not give up stage activities. During the First World War she performed at the front. In 1914 she was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor. In 1922 she left stage activities.

The actress died on March 26, 1923 in Paris at the age of 78 from uremia following kidney failure. She is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Her last order was to choose the six most beautiful young actors who would carry her coffin.

Almost all of Paris came to the funeral of the “queen of the theater.” Tens of thousands of admirers of her talent followed the coffin from rosewood through the entire city - from Boulevard Malesherbes to the Père Lachaise cemetery. Last way Sarah Bernhardt's was literally strewn with camellias - her favorite flowers.

“Sarah Bernhardt, an actress of almost legendary fame and fame, has died. There were many exaggerations in judgments about Sarah Bernhardt - in one direction and in the other, - one of the best Russian critics, Alexander Kugel, wrote in his obituary. “Of the thousands of theatrical dreams, more or less entrancing, that I have had, the dream about Sarah Bernhardt is one of the most original and complexly entertaining.”

Portraits of Sarah Bernhardt were painted by Bastien-Lepage, Boldini, Gandara and other artists, and Nadar photographed her many times. Alphonse Mucha wrote advertising posters for her performances.

D. Marell wrote a play about Sarah Bernhardt, “The Laughter of the Lobster.”

Sarah Bernhardt played 13-year-old Juliet at 70 years old.

Sarah Bernhardt was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the film industry.

Well, a little Fly to you, since they mentioned him.