Surgeon Samuel Pozzi, his romance with Sarah Bernhardt and her 1915 leg amputation

The celebrated surgeon and simply the handsomest man of his day, Samuel Jean Pozzi, captured in an equally celebrated portrait by John Singer Sargent, was the hero of numerous love affairs. One of them bound him to the greatest actress of her age, Sarah Bernhardt.

The vivid romance between the actress and the doctor fell in their youth, but they remained close friends for life. Bernhardt called Pozzi "Doctor God" and was his patient for many years.

"And now I take you in my arms; I have loved you for more than forty-six years, which gave us a multitude of memories, for which you will forever have the gratitude of Sarah Bernhardt," the actress wrote to her beloved.

Pozzi did not merely treat Sarah Bernhardt but operated on her too. In 1915 "Doctor Dieu" even had to amputate her right leg.

And three years later he was shot dead in his own consulting room by a disgruntled patient who blamed the surgeon for an unsuccessful operation.

Report a translation error

September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Surgeon Samuel Pozzi, his romance with Sarah Bernhardt and her 1915 leg amputation

Read more

September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s