Melandri (active Paris, 1860 - 1883)
Sarah Bernhardt as the Queen in 'Ruy Blas' by Victor Hugo, about 1879
Gelatin silver print, 16.5 x 10.8 cm (6 1/2 x 4 1/4 in.)
In this sepia toned photograph, a woman is seated in a wooden throne in an interior scene. She is white and her head is slightly tilted to the right. Her right arm rests on the right arm of the throne. Her left arm rests in her lap. She is wearing light colored gloves on both hands and a dress which is a costume for a queen. It is light in color with a corsetted waist, puffed sleaves and a stand up collar. Her skirt is voluminous and multi-layered either in a heavy brocade or with appliqued decoration. Her feet are not visible, but rest on a patterned pillow on the floor. Her hair is a medium tone and is pulled back. She wears a small crown on the top of her head which has a small cross on top. A pillow is propped behind her right shoulder. The throne is made of a carved dark wood. The design of the back of the throne is visible over the sitter's left shoulder.
Long Gallery
Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner loved music and theater and was a patron of the performing arts. She befriended musicians and actors and memorialized them in the fifteen glass-topped cases she installed in her museum's galleries. One of her theatrical friends was French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923). Isabella displayed this photograph of her in the costume of the Queen in the play 'Ruy Blas' by Victor Hugo in the Modern Actors Case in the Long Gallery.