A white woman with long red hair leaning her head on her hand, making her mouth stretch a bit to one side. She is wearing a white shirt.

A white woman with long red hair leaning her head on her hand, making her mouth stretch a bit to one side. She is wearing a white shirt.

Excerpt from the Lot Essay: “… in profile to focus on her form - clad in figure-hugging silk brocades, offset by an extravagant chiffon bow at the neck. Surface, thus exposed, contained soul. The eye ranges freely over the narrow seventeen-inch waist, the ramrod line of her back, the measurement between ear, nose and mouth, carefully calibrated, and the shock of unruly tresses tamed, it was said, by no more than two pins. By its very nature, a profile is more intimate than a full face; we observe without being observed. The mask is not in place and the eyes do not distract. In this instance, they cast their gaze upon a sculpture as a connoisseur might, and the piece Mlle Bernhardt delicately fingers is that of Orpheus, given to her to hold at this moment by Bastien-Lepage, in order to compliment and express her aspirations as a sculptor.”