19th century French painter and illustrator Georges Jules Victor Clairin painted exotic subjects, both in the Orientalist manner — painting subjects studied on repeated visits to Egypt, Morocco and other areas of North Africa — and luminaries of the French stage, including Sarah Bernhardt, with whom he was friends for most of his career.
Clairin studied with such noted painters as Henri Regnault and Jean-Léon Gérôme.
He brought his taste for the exotic to illustrations as well as gallery paintings. In his numerous portrayals of actors in costume, he combined the implied narrative of the production with the more straightforward portrayal of his subject.
Clairin portrayed Bernhardt, in particular, both in and out of character numerous times.
