Sarah Bernhardt - Paul François BERTHOUD (1870-1939)

"The actress"
presumed portrait of Sarah Bernhardt

A very rare symbolist style bust made up of a white Carrara marble head and a patinated bronze bust.
unsigned
Presented on a walnut wood base.

Exhibited at the Salon of the French Artists of 1902, under the number 2251 :
"La Comédienne – buste, marbre et bronze".

France
1902

height with the base 41 cm
length 54,5 cm
depth 24 cm

A similar model is reproduced in " Modern Style ", Laurence Buffet-Challié, Baschet et Cie éditeurs, Paris, 1975, p.35.

A copy made in patinated plaster, signed "PF. Berthoud", is now preserved in the Musée d'art Roger-Quilliot, Clermont-Ferrand (inv. 984.1.101).

Biography :
Paul-François Berthoud (1870-1939) was a French sculptor, painter, and engraver. He was a student of Pierre Dupuis, Emmanuel Fontaine, and Antonin Larroux, and Berthoud was then a member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and a founding member of the Salon d'Automne. He received an honorable mention at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1898.
Passionate about the performing arts, and theater in particular, Paul-François Berthoud created his most famous sculpture in 1902: the bust of Sarah Bernhardt. The Thorn-Klein Chapel, which he designed in the Levallois-Perret cemetery, is considered a small Art Nouveau masterpiece.