About this artwork
This work, set at a circus, captures the tense moment in which a female trick rider prepares to stand up on her horse and leap through a paper hoop held by a clown. The horse gathers speed, spurred on by the whip of famous ringmaster Monsieur Loyal. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec may have based the garishly made-up rider, dressed in a tutu of gauze and sequins, on Suzanne Valadon, a former circus performer, model, and artist with whom he had a nearly three-year relationship. The rider seems to snarl at Monsieur Loyal, who glares back at her. Toulouse-Lautrec’s setting is the same circus in Montmartre depicted in Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s portrait of the Wartenberg sisters.
This is one of thirty-five works that comprise the Winterbotham Collection. Click here to learn more about the collection.
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Status
- On View, Gallery 242
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Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
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Artist
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
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Title
- Equestrienne (At the Cirque Fernando)
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Place
- France (Artist's nationality:)
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Date
- 1882–1892
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Medium
- Oil on canvas
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Inscriptions
- Inscribed lower left: HT Lautrec
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Dimensions
- 100.3 × 161.3 cm (39 1/2 × 63 1/2 in.); Framed: 123.2 × 181 × 8.3 cm (48 1/2 × 71 1/4 × 3 1/4 in.)
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Credit Line
- Joseph Winterbotham Collection
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Reference Number
- 1925.523
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IIIF Manifest
- https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/16146/manifest.json