Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando

1879

Oil on canvas, 117.2 × 77.5 cm. The National Gallery, London

The acrobat Miss La La is hoisted into the roof of a Paris circus on a rope, hanging from a mouthpiece clenched in her teeth. It is Degas's only circus painting.

Degas looks steeply up from the seats, so iron girders fill more of the canvas than she does. Impressionist painters often took up modern iron buildings, from bridges to exhibition halls.
Degas lent it himself to the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1879.
The Cirque Fernando opened in 1875 near the Place Pigalle, close to Degas's home.
Walter Sickert said an architectural draftsman helped Degas with the ceiling's perspective.
Bought through the Courtauld Fund in 1925; at the National Gallery since 1950.

Miss La La was the stage name of Anna Albertine Olga Brown, born in Prussia to a white mother and an African American father. Her best-known feat was the "Iron Jaw" act.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain