Marie Gicquel, edited by Julia Solans / Photo credit: Photo Josse / Leemage via AFP 08:36, April 24, 2023

He is the first French international star in history. Sarah Bernhardt passed away 100 years ago and her name still resonates today. At the Petit Palais in Paris, an exhibition is dedicated to him. The opportunity to discover the one who inspired Hollywood studios and who marked a generation of actors thanks to her extraordinary personality.

She is considered a legend and the centenary of her death is celebrated this year. Sarah Bernhardt, a French actress born in 1844, was a model for an entire generation and continues to be so today. More than 400 works paying tribute to him are exhibited at the Petit Palais in Paris on the occasion of an exhibition dedicated to him. The curious will be able to discover the story of this extravagant woman and connoisseurs will be able to admire hundreds of objects.

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Treasures to discover his "extraordinary personality"

Having her own train or her own alligator dead after drinking too much champagne, the actress filled all the boxes of extravagance. Five years were needed to create this exhibition and retrace his life through photographs, for example wearing a "bat hat" or "sleeping in his coffin". The exhibition is full of treasures: its theater costumes adorned with stone, its unusual furniture or its first advertisements.

"So many elements that also show that her image was conveyed everywhere," says Stéphanie Cantarutti, conservative, who does not hesitate to describe the actress as an "extraordinary personality". Sarah Bernhardt was so passionate about her craft that she never gave up on stage. Even amputated of a leg, a kidney and a lung, the French star went to play on the front for the poilus during the First World War. The exhibition is to be discovered until August 27.