SARAH BERNHARDT as LADY MACBETH
from MacBeth by William Shakespeare

IT IS NOT an exaggeration to say that Sara Bernhardt played every major theatrical role of her era, including several male roles (Hamlet being the most prominent).

After extensive searching I acquired three tiny photos of Ms. Bernhardt as Lady Macbeth, and the painting is based upon these postage stamp-size pictures showing the famous sleep-walking scene (of the “out damned spot” reference) with Bernhardt dressed in a floor length white shift. I found the garment to be a little too formless for my purposes, so a blanket robe was added for visual interest.

Bernhardt, of all the Victorian actresses, is the most visually distinctive, and due to her fame, presumably the most recognizable. After much study of Bernhardt portrait photography, however, it was clear to me that she looks nothing like the elegant portraits of Alphonse Mucha. Bernhardt had a very large nose, extraordinarily wide-spaced eyes, a very thin face, a slight overbite, and hair that varies from a total frizz to large cascading waves.