Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt holding a statue of Orpheus

Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt Holding a Statue of Orpheus, painted in 1879, documents Bastien-Lepage's close friendship with the French theatre's greatest star. Bernhardt, who was at the height of her early fame in the late 1870s following her break with the Comédie-Française in 1880, was also a sculptor, and the statue of Orpheus she holds in the painting is one of her own works. The double portrait of actress-sculptor holding sculpture is an act of homage to Bernhardt's multiple artistic identities. Bastien-Lepage knew Bernhardt personally through Paris's overlapping artistic and theatrical circles; he would paint a second portrait of her, now in Stockholm's Nationalmuseum. The choice of Orpheus — the mythological musician whose art overcame death — is richly appropriate for a woman who was already known as the greatest dramatic performer of her age. The painting passed into the Ann and Gordon Getty Collection, reflecting its status as a prize work among private collectors of French nineteenth-century art.

The composition positions Bernhardt's celebrated face at the top and the sculpture she holds as a secondary subject, inviting the viewer to consider the relationship between the actress's living presence and the art object she has created. The handling of the smooth marble surface against her dress fabric demonstrates technical range.