Portraits of Actors and Actresses: Thirteen Lithographs: Sarah Bernhardt

The work titled Portraits of Actors and Actresses: Thirteen Lithographs: Sarah Bernhardt was created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1898. This piece is a lithograph, forming part of a celebrated series that focuses on the theatrical luminaries of late 19th-century France. Toulouse-Lautrec, renowned for his penetrating observations of Parisian nightlife and performance venues, frequently turned his attention to the stage and the personalities who defined the cultural landscape of the Belle Époque.

The specific subject of this lithograph is the iconic actress Sarah Bernhardt, whom Toulouse-Lautrec captured with characteristic immediacy and psychological insight. As a master of the print medium, the artist utilized the technical versatility of lithography to achieve bold lines and expressive contours, a style perfectly suited to the rapid, often satirical, nature of celebrity portraiture in fin-de-siècle France. His images are considered critical historical documents of the French theater world, often transforming what might have been considered mere promotional material into sophisticated fine art prints.

The systematic documentation of performers in the Portraits of Actors and Actresses series reflects Toulouse-Lautrec’s deep immersion in the world of entertainment. The print medium allowed for the broad dissemination of his work, solidifying his reputation among the major Post-Impressionist artists working during this period in France. Classified specifically as a print, this artwork resides in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The powerful portraits within this series ensured that the public image of figures like Bernhardt was defined, in part, by the graphic immediacy of Toulouse-Lautrec’s vision.