Self Portrait as a Sphinx (Fantastical Inkwell)

Sarah Bernhardt's life and legacy are momentus. She was an actress and superstar who, over the course of her life, produced fifty documented artworks. Of those fifty, a mere twenty-five are known to still exist. This is an inkwell she fahsioned in 1880. It is a self-portrait of the artist as a sphinx, cast in bronze and styled in a deeply Symbolist and Art Nouveau manner. It is said to have been inspired by her 1874 performance in Le Sphinx— an encore of sorts.