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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

At the Circus: Bareback, 1899

Description

Maker

Title

At the Circus: Bareback

Year

1899

Medium

Crayon, ink and pastel on wove paper

Materials/Techniques

Materials

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signed in black crayon, UL and LR corners:artist's monogram

Type

Credit

Gift of Mrs. Murray S. Danforth

Object Number

34.003

Projects & Publications

Publications

Selection V

French Watercolors and Drawings, ca. 1800-1910

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Circus

August 1, 2014 - February 22, 2015

In 1899, inspired by his many visits to the Cirque Fernando in Paris, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec worked from memory to compose this drawing and at least 39 other circus-related works. Perched precariously atop an enormous horse, a bareback rider raises her arms, gliding effortlessly around the ring. Seamless communication between horse and rider is essential for a successful equestrian act, and Toulouse-Lautrec’s touches of pale blue pastel throughout the rider’s costume, hair, and body, as well as on the horse’s saddle pad, bridle, and tail ribbon, alude to this connection.

From Dürer to Van Gogh

June 5 - October 26, 2008

In this drawing by Toulouse-Lautrec, bold passages of black delineate the female bareback rider perched precariously on her enormous horse. The curved diagonal of the circus ring destabilizes the entire composition by seeming to force the horse askew. The viewer is constrained to define the ambiguous distance between the horse and the ringmaster as well as the relationship of the horse to the ground. Toulouse-Lautrec’s strong black lines describe contours and create energetic movement to produce tension within a scene of superficial gaiety.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is At the Circus: Bareback with the accession number of 34.003. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.