At the Circus: The Bareback Rider (Au Cirque: Écuyère)

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1888

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864–1901)

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 shape of the tambourine mirrors that of the paper hoop held by the clown in the larger painting, so that our view here seems to be framed by the hoop just after the bareback rider has broken through it.

Status: On View, Gallery 242
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Title: At the Circus: The Bareback Rider (Au Cirque: Écuyère)
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1888
Medium: Tambourine with oil on vellum painting
Inscriptions: Signed lower right: HTLautrec
Dimensions: Diam.: 26.7 cm (10 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Patterson/Taylor Acquisition Fund; Mr. and Mrs. Donald W. Patterson Endowment Fund
Reference Number: 2010.413
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/204686/manifest.json

M. Joyant, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, vol. I, Paris, H. Floury, 1926, p. 265.
M. G. Dortu, Toulouse-Lautrec et son oeuvre, vol. II, New York, Collectors Editions, 1971, p. 150, 151, no. 316 (ill.).
Charles F. Stuckey, Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings, Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, 1979, p. 126.
Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov, Vincent van Gogh and the Birth of Cloisonism, exh. cat., Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1981, pp. 100–01.
B. Foucart and G. M. Sugana, Tout l’oeuvre peint de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paris, Flammarion, 1986, p. 107, no 314 (ill).
Gale B. Murray, Toulouse-Lautrec: The Formative Years, 1878–1891, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1991, p. 144.
Julia Frey, Toulouse-Lautrec, A Life, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1994, p. 215.
Nick Earhart, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Art Talk (Summer 2011): 36 (ill.)

Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Exposition H. De Toulouse-Lautrec, 9 April–17 May 1931, no. 49.
Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, Toulouse-Lautrec, May–August 1951, no. 124 (?).

Gustave Pellet (1859–1919), Paris, by 1926 [Joyant 1926]; by descent to his son-in-law, Maurice Exsteens (1887–1962), Paris, by 1931 [Paris 1931 exh. cat.]. M. Knoedler & Co., Inc, New York, by 1957 [New York 2010 auc. cat.]. Mrs. Charles Sherwood Payson, New York, by 1958 [New York 2010 auc. cat.]; by descent to Anonymous [New York 2010 auc. cat.]; sold, Christie’s, New York, May 11, 1988, lot 21, to Dan Searle (1926–2007), Illinois; bequeathed to Anonymous [New York 2010 auc. cat.]; offered for sale, Christie’s, New York, May 5, 2010, lot 335, bought in., sold to the Art Institute of Chicago.

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At the Circus: The Bareback Rider (Au Cirque: Écuyère)

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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