Sarah Bernhardt in Hamlet.
From the well-known painting by Louis Besnard.
Photo, Henri Manuel.]
Time and time again she threatened to resign. Finally, to appease her, they had to promise to make her a “full member” of the company—an honour not usually given till after fifteen or twenty years with the Comédie—and accordingly raise her salary. But still she was discontented. She was making 20,000 francs a year, and spending 50,000.
She decided that space was too restricted in her flat and resolved to build for herself a private house. Private houses in Paris, then as now, were the property only of the wealthy. Over nine hundred out of every thousand people live in flats.
She chose a magnificent plot on the rue Fortuny, in what is now the exclusive residential section of the Plaine Monceau, but which then was practically a desert. Felix Escalier, a famous architect, was called into consultation by the actress, and together they designed a three-story house of noble dimensions and beautiful lines. Bordering it on two sides was to be a spacious garden.
Sarah could scarcely contain herself when the plans were finally approved and the building begun. The work seemed to her interminable. To hasten construction, a call was sent out for more workmen, but none were to be had, so a band of her student friends took off their coats, donned the white aprons of masons, and gave their services free, joyful to be of use.
In a little under a year the house was finished, and Sarah ransacked the shops of Paris for furniture and appointments.
Georges Clairin, madly in love with her, undertook to paint four mural decorations, the largest of which was in the reception hall. It represented nude figures gambolling on fleecy clouds, and made an enormous sensation.