Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
The Circus
Georges Seurat · Post-Impressionism & Neo-Impressionism
- Artist
- Georges-Pierre Seurat (1859–1891)
- Date
- 1890–1891
- Dimensions
- 185.5 x 152.5 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
The Circus shows a performance at the Cirque Fernando in Paris: a bareback rider balances on a galloping white horse, an acrobat somersaults in the air, a ringmaster cracks his whip, and a clown seen from behind frames the scene in the foreground.
A closer look
Seurat built the picture from countless small dots of pure colour in his pointillist technique, dominated by yellow, orange, red and blue. He applied theories about the emotional effect of lines: upward-curving lines and warm colours were meant to express joy and movement. The spectators sit in tiers that reflect the social order, from elegant patrons in the front rows to working people high up. The painting was left unfinished when Seurat died suddenly in March 1891, at the age of thirty-one, while it was on show at the Salon des Indépendants.
