Portrait of Sophie Pauwels van Biene

Person depicted Sophie Pauwels van Biene (1852-1907)
Role Princess Elisa in Madame Sans-Gêne (Sardou)
Artist Thérèse Schwartze (1851-1918)
Medium Oil on canvas
Year 1901

Schwartze portrays the actor Sophie Pauwels-van Biene as Princess Elisa from Sardou's play Madame Sans-Gêne, set in France in the early nineteenth century. She played the part in one of the opening performances of the Stadsschouwburg in 1894. That same year she also played the archangel Raphael in Joost van den Vondel's Gijsbrecht van Amstel, a role regularly taken by women.

Although the painting has hung prominently in the theatre for more than 120 years, she was not a grande dame who was widely fêted. She was nonetheless valued. “She will therefore not be forgotten. And the portrait in the Stadsschouwburg, painted at the time by Mrs Therese van Duyl-Schwartze, will always call to mind that unassuming woman who has now left us for good…”, as one writer put it after her early death.