HENRI MANUEL CABINET PHOTO OF FRENCH ACTRESS REGINA BADET IN POLKA DOT DRESS

Description

ANTIQUE CABINET CARD PHOTOGRAPH OF FRENCH ACTRESS AND DANCER, REGINA BADET.
Photographer information is on the front and back. On front, at top of mount: "COLLECTION HENRI MANUEL" and at bottom: "HENRI MANUEL 27, Rue du Faubg Montmartre PARIS TELEPHONE 313.39." Backmark: "PHOTOGRAPHIE D'ART... HENRI MANUEL Ex Operateur au Ministere de la Guerre... English spoken..." Please see scans for full text of backmark.
SIZE. Approximately 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches.
CONDITION. Photo: Some soiling, including on her hat. Some scuffing, including on the inside of her hat (the white marks). Mount: Front shows light wear at bottom corners. Back has wear at corners and along bottom edge, a couple of scuff marks, and some discoloration.
APPEARANCE. Very good tones. Masterful lighting. Wonderful details to her attire. A gorgeous portrait.
THE ACTRESS. "Régina Badet (October 9, 1876 – October 26, 1949) was a French comedic actress and dancer, star of the Ópera-Comique de Paris. Badet was first dancer with the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux in 1890. She began with the Opéra-Comique de Paris in 1904, dancing in productions of Lakmé (1905), Aphrodite (1906, in which she shared billing with dancer Mata Hari), Ariane et Barbe-Bleue (1907), Carmen (1908),[4] Bacchus triomphant (1909), Le Mariage de Télémaque (1909), Athanaïs (1910), Sapphô (1912), La Grande Famille (1914), Un Mari dans du Coton (1916), Les Trois Sultanes (1917), Appassionata (1920), and Le Venin (1923). She was known for creating the role of Conchita Perez in a stage adaptation of La Femme et le Pantin (1910), in which her very minimal costume was a matter of some scandal. Badet appeared in French silent films Le Secret de Myrto (1908), Le Retour d'Ulysse (1909), Carmen (1910), La Saltarella (1912), Zoé a le cœur trop tendre (A Woman's Last Card, 1912), Le Spectre du passé (1913), Vendetta (1914), Manuella (1916), Le Lotus d'or (The Golden Lotus, 1916), Sadounah (No Greater Love 1919), and Maître Évora (1922). Her dances were often in the popular exotic style, referencing ancient or 'oriental' themes. 'Mlle. Badet does not seem to content herself with the lavish display of her charmingly pretty figure,' commented an American writer, 'but to run the gamut from the somewhat acrobatic and to our eyes grotesque posturing and 'stunts' which found so much favor with the ancients, to dances of ideas and emotions of a much higher and more poetic order, mingled with passages of adoration of and oblation to the goddess whom she serves.' An American publication described her as 'A Dancing Bernhardt,' quoting her as saying 'Every woman can live artistically,' and 'Nature never intended that a single woman should be plain or unattractive.' Badet was considered a great beauty of the Paris stage. A rose variety was named 'Regina Badet' in 1909. During World War I she was active in the Union des Arts, theatrical professionals in Paris raising funds for war relief. The Château Marbuzet in Bordeaux was reportedly built for Badet at great expense. It remains today as part of a vineyard. Pianist Arthur Rubinstein described a shipboard affair with Badet, on their way to Argentina in 1917. Badet died in 1949, aged 73 years, in Bordeaux. In 2016, Régina Badet was played by actress Hélèna Soubeyrand in a French film, Chocolat, about the Paris stage of the late nineteenth century." (source: Wikipedia)
THE PHOTOGRAPHER. "Henri Manuel (24 April 1874, Paris – 11 September 1947, Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a Parisian photographer who served as the official photographer of the French government from 1914 to 1944. Henri Manuel's photograph of Auguste Rodin and the Duchesse de Choiseul at the Hôtel Biron. In 1900, Manuel opened a portrait studio in Paris with his brother Gaston, which specialised in portrait photography. Manuel quickly became renowned as a photographer of people from the worlds of politics, art and sports, as well as a photographer of art and architecture. Soon his portraits were used by news agencies, and in 1910 Manuel's studio began providing a commercial service to news agencies for photographs known as 'l’Agence universelle de reportage Henri Manuel.' The studio became the largest photographic studio in Paris and a leading centre where young aspiring photographers such as Thérèse Bonney might go to work. In 1925, the brothers moved their business to 27 rue du Faubourg Montmartre, where they expanded their business into fashion photography for the likes of Chanel, Patou, Poiret and Lanvin. By 1941 the studio had produced over a million images, spread between fashion photographs, news agency photographs, personal portraits and other images. The studio was shut down during the Second World War, and most of the photographic plates were destroyed. Some 500 survived, and ultimately passed into possession of the Médiathèque de l’architecture et du patrimoine." (source: Wikipedia)