Georges Jules Victor Clairin
Orientalist painter, intimate portraits of Sarah Bernhardt
Georges Jules Victor Clairin was a French Orientalist painter and illustrator. He was influenced by Eastern imagery Moorish architecture, and visited North Africa many times, in particular Algeria, Morocco and Egypt. In Paris he led the life of a socialite, and befriended the glamorous actress Sarah Bernhardt , his friend for 50 years, and is today best known for his 'in costume' and informal intimate portraits of her. Clairin was apprenticed in the workshops of Isidore Pils and François-Édouard Picot . In 1861 he entered the École des beaux-arts de Paris , and in 1866 first displayed his work. He traveled to Spain with Henri Regnault and to Italy with François Flameng and Jean-Léon Gérôme . He met the Catalan painter Marià Fortuny in Morocco and they visited Tétouan together. In 1895, he traveled to Egypt with the composer Camille Saint-Saëns . He is best known for his portraits of Sarah Bernhardt , with whom he had a long friendship and whom he depicted in costume for a number of her roles, including as the queen in Ruy Blas (1879), Mélisande in La Princesse Lointaine (1895 and 1899), Cleopatra (1900), Theodora (1902) and Saint Teresa of Ávila; he also showed her in less formal poses. Clairin painted many ceilings, among them the foyers of the Opéra Garnier (1874) and the Le Trident, the theater of Cherbourg. He was the uncle of the painter Pierre-Eugène Clairin.
Relationship Network
Master student
- Isidore Pils Master
- Mattheus Ignatius van Bree Master
Artworks by this artist (68 total)
- Funérailles de Victor Hugo – la veillée sous l’arc de triomphe 1885
- La chimère à l’ile de Sarah Bernhardt
- Figures resting in the mountains
- La Deesse Neith
- Theatrical Figure with Feathered Headdress
- Victor Hugo sur son lit de mort 1885
- A Bedouin
- Fantasia 1894
- La mare aux fées
- Sarah Bernhardt dans ‘Le Marchand de Venise’
- Scenes of Sarah Bernhardt’s life 15
- Tambour-major de l’armée française donnant à manger aux pigeons de la place Saint-Marc à Venise
- Dans les nuages. Impressions d’une chaise 1878
- Scenes of Sarah Bernhardt’s life
- Scenes of Sarah Bernhardt’s life 14
- Scenes of Sarah Bernhardt’s life 3
- The Opium Smokers 1872
- Portrait équestre, éclaireur à cheval 1873
- Fête champêtre aux environs de Paris 1891
- Jules Massenet’s Le Cid 1886