Mother and daughter 010

Anti-reflective coating on lenses did not exist in 1900 so outdoor portraits of ladies in face à main were often marred by an excess of glare in the lenses. Here is an attempt to reduce the glare. It's included because I wanted to do justice to the wonderful posing by Esther. One can easily imagine a short sighted young lady of the upper classes, raising her strong face à main to check if a young man in the distance is attractive or not.

The famous French actress Sarah Bernhardt (b. 1844 - d. 1923) was even more short sighted than the first owner of Esther's face à main which is minus seven. Some of her visual aids are on display in the Pierre Marly collection in Paris and it turned out that the lenses are minus ten. In spite of this handicap, Sarah did most of her acting on stage without her face à main. If she used visual aid, it was always highly decorated, e.g. a combination of  face à main and watch.