This elegant publicity portrait of Theda Bara for the now-lost silent drama Madame Du Barry (1917), captures the actress in a moment of refined, aristocratic poise. Seated gracefully upon a marbled garden bench, Bara is adorned in an opulent period gown rich with flounced layers and delicate rosette embellishments, while a powdered wig completes the sumptuous eighteenth-century styling. Her arms rest crossed gently across her bodice as her pink ribboned shoe lightly meets the edge of an ornate Persian rug. Framed by sweeping palm leaves that lend the composition an exotic theatrical flourish, the scene is bathed in the careful, luminous lighting of legendary silent era photographer Albert Witzel. The result is a portrait of stately elegance and silent-screen pageantry, preserving the grandeur of a film whose images now survive only through such evocative moments. Color by Hollywood Pinups.
