After training at the Paris Conservatoire she began her professional career in 1872, and from 1880 to her retirement in 1920 she was a leading member of the Comédie-Française.

In 1879 Bartet was engaged by the Comédie-Française, where she made her début on 16 February 1880, as Léa in Sardou's Daniel Rochat; later in that year she took over from Sarah Bernhardt as the Queen in Ruy Blas.

[2] Over the next forty years she played ninety roles at the Comédie-Française, ranging from comedy to tragedy, gaining the nickname "La Divine".

[2][n 1] Le Figaro said that Bartet served the Comédie-Française with incomparable nobility, and commented that her "scholarly and understated elegance … her refined grace, her restrained and profound pathos" were "one of the models of the French woman".

[5] Bartet died at her home in the 8th arrondissement of Paris on 18 November 1941, at the age of 87[1] and was interred in the Passy Cemetery.