Louis Albert Besnard - Porträt Sarah Bernhardt - image-1

Lot 714 R

Louis Albert Besnard - Porträt Sarah Bernhardt

Auction 1013 - overview Cologne
25.05.2013, 11:30 - Modern Art May 25 2013
Estimate: 20.000 € - 25.000 €
Result: 23.180 € (incl. premium)

Watercolour over pencil and chalk, reworked in parts with opaque white, oil colours and gold-bronze, with ornamental embossing, on thin card 23.7/24.4 x 11.6/12.1 cm, framed. Signed, dated and dedicated 'A Madame/Maurice Bernhardt/Louis Besnard./96.' with light blue brush lower right. - The card slightly irregularly cut; varnish to a linearly drawn marginal contour.

Rau Collection for UNICEF

Louis-Albert Besnard, eldest son of the better-known painter, graphic artist and writer (Paul) Albert Besnard (1849 - Paris -1934), apparently dedicated this small portrait of Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) to the daughter-in-law of the famous French actress. 'Madame Maurice Bernhardt', née Princess Therese Jablonowska, was married to Sarah Bernhardt's only son, Maurice, and died in Paris in 1910 (cf. newspaper report 'Bernhardt's Daughter-in-law dead' in: The New York Dramatic Mirror, July 30, 1910).