At the Circus: The Bareback Rider (Au Cirque: Écuyère)
Medium
Oil on vellum
Dimensions
Diam.: 26.7 cm (10 1/2 in.)
Classification
musical instrument
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
204686
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
One of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s favorite haunts was the Cirque Fernando, also the subject of his large painting, Equestrienne (At the Cirque Fernando) in the collection of the Art Institute. Like many of the artists in his circle, Toulouse-Lautrec experimented with styles and materials beyond easel painting. His decision to paint on a tambourine with little castanets (called a tambour de basque) was perhaps inspired by the instrument’s association with bohemian life and creative freedom. The ...
About the Artist
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec · 1864–1901
Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa (1864-1901) was a French Post-Impressionist painter, printmaker, and illustrator whose innovative poster designs revolutionized graphic art and advertising in late 19th-century Paris. Born into an aristocratic family at Albi in southern France, Toulouse-Lautrec's privileged lineage traced back to the Counts of Toulouse and extended uninterrupted to th...