Left: Actress Henriette Roggers on the first September issue of Le théâtre, 1908.
Villanova Digital Library, Villanova University
Right: Natalie Clifford Barney and Henriette Roggers, 1904, ph. Pierre Scenitas, Paris.
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 96-153, Alice Pike Barney Papers
Identifying Henriette Roggers:
The photo on the top right has sometimes been identified as Natalie Barney and Lucie Delarue-Mardrus—or, the woman on the right has simply been "unidentified".
I recently stumbled upon the name Henriette Roggers because she was mentioned in a letter from Renée Vivien to Natalie Clifford Barney in Je suis tienne irrévocablement (ed. Chantal Bigot and Francesco Rapazzini). Curious, I searched for some images of Roggers, who was a French actress involved with Natalie Barney.
At first, I thought: "Wow, she looks like Lucie Delarue-Mardrus!" And this had me wondering...could she be the unidentified woman in the 1904 photo?
Before I examined the Le théâtre magazine cover from 1908 more closely, I noticed that overall, Roggers seemed to have a keen preference for pearls and wore them often in portraits. Well, the woman in the 1904 photo is wearing two strands! Obviously, pearls were generally pretty popular, but it was significant enough to take notice.
Finally, when I took a look at the 1908 cover again, I realized that the hairstyle was very similar. Looking at the magazine cover and 1904 photo side by side, those two pearl strands matched perfectly. I tried to look at the lace of the dress to see if the pattern was the same, but this proved to be difficult. I did notice, however, the ribbon trailing down on the left side of Roggers' dress, and the distinct bow on the left sleeve. Mystery solved! It looks like the later cover of the Le théâtre magazine used a portrait from this very same 1904 photo session.
