France-Amérique Magazine – July/August 2023 – The issue celebrates Bastille Day, a look at La Marseillaise in New York City; why the 1789 Revolution still carries so much weight in contemporary French culture; a profile of French food design pioneer Anna Polonsky; and learn all about the Great Chartreuse Shortage of 2023…

ANNA POLONSKY – The French Food Design Pioneer

Born in Paris and based in New York City, the founder of the Polonsky & Friends studio combines her passions for design and cuisine by creating visual identities for restaurants and food brands.

LA MARSEILLAISE – A Taste of Free France in Manhattan

Where could you have once danced to accordion music, met fellow French comrades-in-arms, and even bumped into Marlene Dietrich, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Jean Gabin? All the Free French soldiers who passed through New York City during World War II would have pointed you toward La Marseillaise, on Second Avenue.

SARAH BERNHARDT – A Scandalous French Superstar in America

Having completed nine tours of the United States during her career, actress Sarah Bernhardt was probably the most famous French woman in America at the time. An exhibition in Paris is currently celebrating the thespian, who passed away a century ago this year.

Sarah Bernhardt, (1844-1923), was an emblematic figure who spanned the 19th and 20th centuries. The “Divine Sarah”, who was an artist as well as an actress, takes center stage at the Petit Palais in an exceptional exhibition to mark the centenary of her death.

Sarah Bernhardt

And the woman created the star

14 April 2023 to 27 August 2023

The museum holds important collections of works linked to the actress, including the spectacular portrait of her that was painted in 1876 by her friend Georges Clairin and donated by her son Maurice.

With over four hundred works, the exhibition traces the life and theatrical career of this “sacred monster”, as Jean Cocteau dubbed her. A legendary performer of the greatest roles from Racine, Shakespeare, Edmond Rostand and Alexandre Dumas fils, among others, Sarah Bernhardt went from triumph to triumph in theaters all over the world.

The exhibition evokes her greatest roles through the costumes she wore on stage, photographs, paintings, posters and other memorabilia. Her “golden voice” and her tall, slender figure – unusual in those days – held the public in thrall, as well as the artistic and literary world, who simply venerated her. She was the friend of painters such as Gustave Doré, Georges Clairin, Louise Abbéma, and Alphonse Mucha, but also of writers like Victor Hugo, Victorien Sardou and Sacha Guitry, as well as musicians and composers like Reynaldo Hahn. She was an artist herself, and an entire section of the exhibition focuses on this lesser-known aspect of her life.