This striking Belle Époque portrait depicts Geneviève Lantelme (1883–1911), one of the most photographed and fashionable actresses of turn-of-the-century Paris. She developed a successful theatrical career during the first decade of the 20th century. The Bibliothèque nationale de France identifies her as a theatrical actress, the wife of newspaper magnate Alfred Edwards, and records that she died by drowning during a cruise on the Rhine in 1911. Lantelme began appearing on the Paris stage in the early 1900s. Surviving theatrical records place her in Le Secret de Polichinelle at the Théâtre du Gymnase in 1903 and as Suzette in Paris-New York at the Théâtre Réjane in 1907. Her fame increased considerably during the later years of the decade, and she became closely associated with the glamorous world of Belle Époque theater, fashion, and celebrity culture. She was repeatedly photographed by leading Paris studios and appeared in fashionable dress in the illustrated press. The portrait offered here is particularly appealing. Lantelme is shown in a close, softly modeled head-and-shoulders study, wearing an elaborately patterned off-the-shoulder gown, a necklace of large beads, and a decorative hair accessory. Her carefully arranged coiffure, direct gaze, and refined costume reflect the fashionable theatrical portraiture for which the Reutlinger studio became famous. A faint pencil notation along the upper reverse reads “Lantelme.” The Reutlinger studio was one of the major portrait photography establishments in Paris. The photographic business began with Charles Reutlinger in the mid-19th century and continued through Émile and Léopold Reutlinger. The New York Public Library records the studio as operating at 21 Boulevard Montmartre during the 1890s. Under Léopold Reutlinger, the studio became especially successful at photographing actresses, dancers, singers, fashionable women, and other celebrities of the Paris stage. Reutlinger photographs of performers survive today in important museum and archival collections.The Palais Galliera in Paris owns a Reutlinger portrait of Geneviève Lantelme wearing an evening gown by the celebrated couturier Doucet, specifically dated 1909; its reverse also carries a handwritten identification of Lantelme. The photograph of Lantelme presented for sale here, was taken circa 1909. SOLD
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