Lina Cavalieri

Around 1900, Italian soprano Lina Cavalieri (1874-1944) was considered the most beautiful woman on earth and one of the queens of the Belle Époque. In the 1910s, she became a popular film star in Italian, French and American films.


French postcard by Kunzli Frères Editeurs, Paris, series 30/29. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Caption: St. Petersbourg.


French postcard by S.I.P, no. 1181. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Caption: St. Petersbourg. Lina Cavalieri in the opera 'Thaïs' by Jules Massenet.


French postcard by S.I.D., no. 1188. Photo: Reutlinger. Sent by mail in 1907. Lina Cavallieri in the opera 'Thaïs' by Jules Massenet. The work was first performed in Italy at the Teatro Lirico Internazionale in Milan on 17 October 1903 with Lina Cavalieri in the title role and Francesco Maria Bonini as Athanaël.


French postcard by S.I.P., no. 1188. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Lina Cavalieri in the opera 'Thaïs' by Jules Massenet.


French postcard by S.I.P., no. 1188. Sent by mail in 1905. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard, no. 1188. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Lina Cavallieri in the opera 'Thaïs' by Jules Massenet.

Hour-glass figure

Lina Cavalieri was born Natalina Cavalieri into poverty in a slum in Viterbo, Italy, in 1875. She first sold flowers on the streets of Rome, then packed copies of one of the local newspapers. At the age of thirteen she made her first appearances in a café chantant in Rome's Piazza Navona, where, after her performances, she took around a hat for donations.

She lost her parents at the age of fifteen and became a ward of the state, sent to live in a Roman Catholic orphanage. Unhappy under the strict raising of the nuns, she ran from the orphanage with a theatre group. Blessed with a good singing voice and stunning good looks, she made a career as a vaudeville singer.

At the Folies Bergère in Paris, she came to rank with Cécile Sorel and Caroline Otero as one of the queens of the Belle Époque, and the management quickly renewed her contact. In 1897 she triumphed at London's Empire Theatre, and later also in St. Petersburg. In 1900, she made her opera debut in Lisbon, Portugal, as Nedda in 'Pagliacci'. That same year she married her first husband, the Russian Prince Alexandre Bariatinsky. In 1904, she sang at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

A year later, Cavalieri starred opposite Enrico Caruso in 'Fedora' at the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris. From there, she and Caruso took the opera to New York City, debuting it at the Metropolitan Opera on 5 December 1906. According to IMDb, Cavalieri became so carried away with Caruso that she once kissed him passionately on stage. Cavalieri remained with the Metropolitan Opera for the next two seasons, performing again with Caruso in 1907, in Puccini's 'Manon Lescaut'.

She became one of the most photographed stars of her time, and was frequently referred to as the 'world's most beautiful woman'. Cavalieri was famous for her hourglass figure, visible in photographs and portraits by Cesare Tallone, Giovanni Boldini and Reutlinger. During the 1909–1910 season she sang with Oscar Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera Company. Her first marriage long over, she had a whirlwind romance and marriage with Robert Winthrop Chanler, a member of New York's prominent Astor family. However, this marriage lasted only a very short time


French postcard by S.I.P., no. 180/1. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by S.I.P., 50th series, no. 4. Sent by mail in 1908. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by S.I.P., no. 188/9. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by S.I.P., 50th series [?]. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Signed 30 January 1906.


French postcard by SID, no. 910/5. Sent by mail in 1905. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by S.I.P., series 30, no. 2. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.

Presumed lost

Back in Europe, Lina Cavalieri married French tenor Lucien Muratore in 1913. She withdrew from the stage and started a career in the cinema. In Great Britain, she appeared in Manon Lescaut (Herbert Hall Winslow, 1914) opposite her husband. It was the first feature-length (four reels) adaptation of Abbe Prevosts tragic novel 'Manon Lescaut'.From 1915 on, she appeared in Italy in the films La sposa della morte/The Bride of Death (1915) and La rosa di Granada/The Rose of Granada (1916), both directed by Emilio Ghione.

She returned to the United States, where she appeared in the melodrama The Eternal Tempress (Emile Chautard, 1917), Love's Conquest (Edward José, 1918), A Woman of Impulse (Edward José, 1918), and The Two Brides (Edward José, 1919) for Famous Players-Lasky. In these films, Cavalieri was already in her forties. Hans J. Wollstein commented at AllMovie: "Unlike (opera diva Geraldine) Farrar, Cavalieri proved rather too theatrical for what really was an intimate medium."

Most of her films are presumed lost now, but her recorded voice remains. La Cavalieri's discography is slim though. In 1910, for Columbia, she recorded famous arias, as well as the song, 'Maria, Marì!' In 1917, for Pathé, the soprano recorded 'Le rêve passé' (The Dream Passed), with Lucien Muratore.

Married for the fourth time to Paolo d’Arvanni, Cavalieri returned to live with her husband in Italy. During the Second World War, she worked as a volunteer nurse. In 1944, she was killed in an Allied bombing raid which destroyed her home near Florence.

Lina Cavalieri was immortalised in an Italian biopic dedicated to her life: La donna più bella del mondo/The Most Beautiful Woman in the World (1955) starring Gina Lollobrigida. In 2004, a book was published, 'Lina Cavalieri: The Life of Opera’s Greatest Beauty, 1874–1944', written by Paul Fryer and Olga Usova.


French-Russian postcard by B.N.K., no. 7205. Sent by mail in Russia in 1905.


Italian postcard and photo by Alterocca, Terni, no. 1750. Virgilio Alterocca (1853-1910) founded the first company for illustrated and photographic cards in Italy. He already founded a typographic company in 1877 working for newspapers and producing posters, but around 1896, thanks to modernising techniques in phototypography from Germany and Switzerland, he made a booming business with photographic cards.


German postcard, Series 81, editor unknown. Almost identical to our b&w Alterocca card with the same photo, but this is a hand-coloured version. Based on a photo by Reutlinger.


French postcard by RPH, Paris, no. 5001. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by RA, no. 5066. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by S.I.P, series 52, no. 12. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Sent by mail in 1902.


French postcard by F.C. & Cie, no. 21. Photo: A. Bert. Signed 22-3-1912.


French postcard by S.I.P. Photo: Reutlinger. Sent by mail in 1905.


French postcard by S.I.P., no. 1461 Photo: Reutlinger. Sent by mail in 1908.


Italian postcard. Lina Cavalieri painted by Tito Corbella, in a kind of Paul Poiret fashion. Corbella painted the portrait after a photo. Uff. Rev. Stampa No. 894, Milano, 25-5-1917.


Hear Lina sing 'Maria, Marì!' (1910). Source: peppopb (YouTube).

Sources: Michael E. Henstock (Opera Quarterly), Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie), Wikipedia, Terniweb.it and IMDb.

The Reutlinger Studio

The Reutlinger Studio in Paris was opened in Paris in 1850 and took photos of the rich and famous until 1937. Reutlinger was known for their unusual Art Nouveau styles of postcard designs, especially for portraits of actresses. This is the first post in a new series on star photographers.


Sarah Bernhardt. British postcard by Rotary Photo Co., London, no. 228A. Sent by mail in 1905. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Gabrielle Robinne. French postcard by A.N., Paris, in the series Les Vedettes du Cinéma, no. 13. Photo: Reutlinger


Huguette Duflos. French postcard by A.N., Paris, in the series Les Vedettes du Cinéma, no.  16. Photo: Reutlinger.

A Successful Postcard Business

The Reutlinger studio was founded by Charles Reutlinger, of German descent. The studio passed on to Charles’ brother Emile in 1880, who ran the studio until 1890.

In 1883, Emile’s son Léopold Reutlinger (1863) came to Paris from Callao, Peru, where he grew up. Léopold took over in 1890, and he developed a very successful postcard business. He photographed the stars of the Moulin Rouge and the Folies Bergère.

He became one of the most requested portrait photographers of the Belle Epoque and he photographed among others Mata Hari, Cleo de Merode, Geraldine Farrar, Polar, Colette, Sarah Bernhardt Leonie Yahne, Liane the Pougy, Anna Held, La Belle Otero and Lina Cavalieri. Many of his pictures were sold to leading newspapers and magazines.

Léopold continued to run the studio until he lost an eye in an accident with a champagne cork in 1930. He died in 1937 at the age of 74.



Lina Cavalieri. French postcard by S.I.P., no. 180/1. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Lina Cavalieri. French postcard by S.I.P., no. 188/9. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Germaine Gallois.French postcard by Olympia / S.I.P., no. 194/18. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Gabrielle Robinne. French postcard, no. 181/10. Sent by mail in 1903. Photo: Reutlinger.


Gabrielle Robinne. French postcard by S.I.P., no. 865/17. Sent by mail in 1904. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.

Art Nouveau Fantasy Overlays

The earliest Reutlinger postcards in our collection date roughly from 1900-1902. They feature images of identified famous actresses, singers, and dancers from the day, surrounded by highly stylized Art Nouveau frames. Often, the same frames were used with different actress images in the centre.

In the several years that followed, the Reutlinger studio began to experiment with colour tinting, different stylization, and more outlandish or novel photomontage techniques.

P.K. Hobbs at Everything Vintage: "Léopold introduced a very distinctive style of merging photographic images with art nouveau fantasy overlays. He added to that process exceptionally well-done hand tinting.

The Reutlinger Studio became known for their unusual art nouveau styles of postcard designs, especially for portraits of actresses. These postcards were not cheaply produced, nor were they cheaply sold. This part of his business was very successful and sought-after, as thousands of his art nouveau postcards were produced."

In 1904, divided backs were permitted in France. Till then the back was reserved for the recipient’s address and all messages had to appear on the front. It explains the handwriting on the front of some cards in this post. 


Gabrielle Robinne. French postcard by S.I.P., no. 1342. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Sylvie. French postcard by S.I.P. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Lina Cavalieri. French postcard by S.I.P., no. 1188. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Lina Cavalieri. French postcard, no. 1188. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Gabrielle Robinne. French postcard. Photo Reutlinger, Paris. 04-69.

Sources: P.K. Hobbs (Everything Vintage), Victor (Wonderings), and Wikipedia.