A painting by Rochegrosse acquired by the Petit Palais

11/8/23 - Acquisition - Paris, Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris - It is difficult to know whether this Japanese from Studio is really Sarah Bernhardt. The painting is by Georges Rochegrosse, who represented the actress on several occasions (ill. 1). It was bought by the Petit Palais from the Galerie L’Horizon chimérique, in Bordeaux, and joins several portraits of the woman who was nicknamed "the Divine" in the collections; there is of course the famous and monumental painting by Georges Clairin, which was given by Maurice Bernhardt after the death of her mother in 1923, but also the pastel by her great friend Louise Abbema acquired in 2020 (see the news item of 21/10/20) as well as a medal by René Lalique and an earthenware dish by ceramist Edmond Lachenal. Most of these works can currently be seen in the museum’s fascinating exhibition devoted to Sarah Bernhardt, which runs until the end of August (see l’article).

1. Georges Rochegrosse (1859-1938)
Japanese from Studio (Sarah Bernhardt?), c. 1885
Oil on canvas - 40 x 32 cm
Paris, Petit Palais
Photo: Petit Palais

See the image in its page

The Petit Palais holds an orientalist painting by Rochegrosse, thus three drawings, two studies for Red Joy and a depiction of a Prussian soldier during the war. Long underestimated, the painter was revealed by an exhibition in 2013 at the Musée Anne-de-Beaujeu in Moulins (see article), which showed the diversity of his work. Son-in-law, then adopted son of the poet Théodore de Banville, Georges Rochegrosse was a great lover of opera, literature and theatre, as his paintings testify, from the monumental and bloody Andromache to the bucolic Knight of the Flowers from Wagner, not forgetting Salammbô, which he represented on canvas as well as on paper, producing fifty-two illustrations from the novel (see the article on the Salammbô exhibition).

2. Georges Rochegrosse (1859-1938)
Sarah Bernhardt Lying
Oil on canvas