Circus Sideshow (Parade de cirque)

1887–88

Oil on canvas, 99.7 × 149.9 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Musicians and performers line up on a raised platform outside a fair tent as onlookers gather. It was the painter's first night scene and first picture of popular entertainment.

The dot method moves from sunlight to artificial light, its separate touches blending into a dim, hazy glow at night.
Its debut came at the 1888 Indépendants, beside Models, an indoor daylight scene.
Look for the trombone player standing at the very center of the line.
The small lights along the top and the round lamps at upper right are built from tiny touches.
Stephen C. Clark left it to the Met in his 1960 bequest.

It shows the Circus Corvi's free outdoor show at a Paris fair in spring 1887, staged to lure ticket buyers inside.

Optical mixing: Small touches of different colors meant to blend in the viewer's eye, not on the palette.

Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access · CC0