About This Artwork

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
French, 1864-1901

At the Circus: Trained Pony and Baboon, 1899

Black pastel with stumping, colored pencil, and graphite on cream wove paper
439 x 267 mm
Signed lower right, in graphite: "T-L" (aritst's monogram in circle); stamped lower left: "T-L"
Margaret Day Blake Collection, 1944.581

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Paris, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, "Exposition H. de Toulouse-Lautrec," April 9-May 17, 1931, cat. 245.

New York, M. Knoedler and Company, "The Circus by Toulouse-Lautrec," 1931, cat. 3.

Detroit, Mich., Society of Arts and Crafts, February-March 1933, cat. 53.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, "Independent Painters of Nineteenth Century Paris," March 15-April 28, 1935, cat. 191.

New York, M. Knoedler and Company, "Toulouse-Lautrec, Paintings, Drawings, Posters," November 15-December 4, 1937, cat. 43.

Palm Beach, Fla., Society of the Four Arts, "Modern Art Loan Exhibition," January 2-23, 1938, cat. 96, as "Clown with Horse and Dog."

Newport, R.I., "Fifty Famous Painters," August 1938, cat. 72.

The Art Institute of Chicago, "Drawings: Old and New," 1946, pp. 25-26, cat. 53, pl. XXIII, cat. by Carl Schniewind.

Pittsburgh, Pa., Carnegie Institute, "Paintings, Drawings, Prints, and Posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec," March 6-April 20, 1947, cat. 25.

The Art Institute of Chicago, "The Art Institute of Chicago Presents Toulouse-Lautrec," July 1949.

Detroit Institute of Arts, "Loan Exhibition of Old Master Drawings from Midwestern Museums," June 1-September 15, 1950, cat. 54.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, "Toulouse-Lautrec," October 29-December 11, 1955, cat. 118; also traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, January 2-February 15, 1956.

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, "Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings, Drawings, Posters and Lithographs," March 20-May 6, 1956, cat. 74.

The Santa Barbara Institute of Arts, "All About the Circus," 1959, cat. 61; traveled to San Francisco, the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.

New York, Wildenstein and Company, "Master Drawings from The Art Institute of Chicago," October 17-November 30, 1963, n.p., cat. 120.

Stockholm, Sweden, Nationalmuseum, "Toulouse-Lautrec," 1968, cat. 231.

The Art Institute of Chicago, "A Quarter Century of Collecting: Drawings Given to The Art Institute of Chicago, 1944-1970 by Margaret Day Blake," April 28-June 7, 1970, n.p., cat. 42 (ill.).

Worcester, Mass., Worcester Art Museum, "The Graphic Work of Toulouse-Lautrec," March 25-May 23, 1971, cat. 131.

Urbana-Champaign, Ill., Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, "Drawings from the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago," April 23–May 14, 1972.

Palm Beach, Fla., Society of Four Arts, "Drawings from The Art Institute of Chicago," January 5–27, 1974, cat. 48.

Paris, Musée du Louvre, "Dessins français de l’Art Institute de Chicago de Watteau à Picasso," October 15, 1976-January 17, 1977, n.p., cat. 76 (ill.).

Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, "Französische Zeichnungen aus dem Art Institute of Chicago," February 10-April 10, 1977, pp. 160-161, cat. 77 (ill.).

The Art Institute of Chicago, "Paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec," October 4-December 2, 1979, checklist 87.

London, Hayward Gallery, "Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec," October 8, 1991-January 19, 1992, cat. 156.

Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, "Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec," February 21-June 1, 1992.

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, and The Art Institute of Chicago, Toulouse-Lautrec and Monmartre, 2005, p. 253, fig. 284; shown in Washington, D.C., The National Gallery of Art, March 20-June 12, 2005, and The Art Institute of Chicago, July 16-October 10, 2005.

Publication History

Arsene Alexandre, Au Cirque (Paris, 1905), no. 4 (ill.).

Theodore Duret, Lautrec (Paris, 1920), pp. 69-70.

Gustave Coquiot, Lautrec (Paris, 1921), pp. 82, and 138-140.

Achille Astre, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1925), p. 129.

Maurice Joyant, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, vol. 2 (Paris, 1927), p. 234, no. 4.

Gotthard Jedlicka, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Berlin, 1929), p. 359.

Town and Country (1931), (ill.).

E. L. Cary, The Last of Lautrec, vol. 3 (New York, 1931), pp. 1-3.

Bryan Holme, Master Drawings (New York, 1943), p. 13 (ill.).

Walter Kern, Lautrec (1948), p. 16.

M.G. Dortu, L'etrange Toulouse-Lautrec (1951), p. 6.

Edouard Julien, Lautrec (Monte Carlo, 1951), p. 11.

Francis Jourdain and Jean Adhemar, Toulouse-Lautrec (New York, 1952), p. 55.

Masterpieces in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1952), n.p.

Charles Perussaux, Toulouse-Lautrec: The Circus (New York, 1952), (ill.).

Jacques Lassaigne, Le gout de notre temps-Lautrec (Lausanne, 1953), p. 104.

Henri Focillon and Julien Edouard, Dessins de Toulouse-Lautrec (Lausanne, 1959), no. 52 (ill.).

Marie Gatard, Toulouse-Lautrec (1959), no. 510 (ill.).

M. Serullaz, Drawings of the Masters: French Impressionists (New York, 1962), p. 115 (ill).

M.G. Dortu, Toulouse-Lautrec (New York, 1971), no. D. 4.525 (ill.).

Harold Joachim, French Drawings and Sketchbooks of the Nineteenth Century (Chicago, 1978-79), no. 6A7.

Donald and Barbara Herberholz, Artworks for Elementary Teachers: Developing Artistic and Perceptual Awareness (2001).

Ownership History

Estate of the artist [Lugt 1338]. Maurice Joyant (died 1930), Paris, by 1927 [Joyant 1927]. M. G. Dortu, by 1931 [according to Paris 1931]. M. Knoedler and Company, New York, by March 1935 [Boston 1935]; sold to the Art Institute, 1944.