Self-Portrait as a Chimera

Provenance

Private collection, France, by 2012; sold Piasa Auction, Paris, June 29, 2012, lot 242, to Robert Zehil Gallery, Monaco; private collection, New York, NY, by 2015; consigned to Colnaghi, Ltd, London, 2020; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2020.

Exhibition history

Chicago, Wrightwood 659, The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939, May 1–Aug. 1, 2025, no cat. no.

Publications

Catherine Gonnard and Tirza True Latimer, "Unbecomnig Women: Becoming Lesbians in the Arts, 1850s–1920s France," in Jonathan D. Katz with Johnny Willis, The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity 1869–1939, exh. cat. (New York: Monacelli Press, 2025), 57 (ill.), 82.

Quick Overview

Artist: Sarah Bernhardt (French, 1844–1923)
Date: c. 1880
Medium: Brass
Dimensions: 31.8 × 34.9 × 31.8 cm (12 1/2 × 13 3/4 × 12 1/2 in.)
Type: Sculpture
Classification: sculpture
Style: 19th century
Place: Paris
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Credit line: Purchased with funds provided by Constance T. and Donald W. Patterson and Pamela Kelley Hull
Accession no.: 2021.2

Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.