Born in Paris, Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923) was acclaimed as the greatest actor of her generation and had roles created for her by some of the finest writers of her age. A global superstar, she ultimately performed at least 70 roles in about 125 productions, appearing in countless countries, even Cuba and Samoa, and touring the USA alone nine times. H. Walter Barnett (1862–1934) was a leading portrait photographer of the late Victorian, Edwardian and interwar periods. He set up Falk Studios in Sydney in 1885, which became the leader in portraits of contemporary Australian stars of the stage and captured many celebrity visitors including Bernhardt. She sat for Barnett in Sydney in June 1891, while on a tour of Australia that saw her act in a total of twelve plays, including playing Marguerite Gautier in La Dame aux Camélias. She shared her suite at the Australia Hotel in Sydney with a menagerie of animals, including a koala, a possum and her St Bernard, which were presumably taken back to France. Barnett photographed Bernhardt in various roles here, and, for the last time, in London in 1910, by which time he was a huge photographic star.
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