Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando (Francisca and Angelina Wartenberg)

1879

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919)

When the Cirque Fernando opened in the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris in 1875, the Impressionists, including Pierre-Auguste Renoir, quickly became frequent visitors. Here, Renoir featured 17-year-old Francisca Wartenberg (left) and her sister, 14-year-old Angelina (right), members of an itinerant German acrobatic troupe. Although Renoir painted the girls in the natural light of his studio rather than onsite at the circus, he posed them as if they were taking their bows after a performance, gathering up the tissue-wrapped oranges tossed to them as tributes by members of the audience.

Status: On View, Gallery 201
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Title: Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando (Francisca and Angelina Wartenberg)
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.: 1879
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed lower left: Renoir
Dimensions: 131.2 × 99.2 cm (51 1/2 × 39 1/16 in.); Framed: 160.1 × 129 × 10.2 cm (63 × 50 3/4 × 4 in.)
Credit Line: Potter Palmer Collection
Reference Number: 1922.440
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/81558/manifest.json

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Huub Beurskens, Ed Wingen, Leo Duppen, et al., Het circus in de beeldende kunst (KcH, 2006), fig. 3.
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Nancy Ireson, “New Arenas: Degas’s Legacy at the Cirque Fernando,” in Linda Wolk-Simon, Degas, Miss La La, and the Cirque Fernando, with contributions by Nancy Ireson and Eveline Baseggio Omiccioli, exh. cat. (Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 2013), pp. 31; 32, fig. 13.
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Paris, Offices of La vie moderne, Cinquième exposition de La vie moderne, P.-A. Renoir, June 19–July 3, 1879, no cat.
Paris, 251, rue Saint-Honoré, Salons du Panorama de Reischoffen, 7me exposition des artistes independants [seventh Impressionist exhibition], Mar. 1–31, 1882, no cat. no.
New York, American Art Galleries, Works in Oil and Pastel by the Impressionists of Paris, Apr. 10–28, 1886, cat. 209; New York, National Academy of Design, May 25–June 30, 1886, as Au Cirque.
Paris, Durand-Ruel, Exposition A. Renoir, May 1892, cat. 3, as Au Cirque.
Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum, Exhibition of French Painting of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Mar. 6–Apr. 7, 1929, cat. 80 (ill.).
Northampton, Mass., Smith College Museum of Art, One Picture Exhibition, Oct. 29–Nov. 29, 1932, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, Children’s Museum, Circus Scenes, Dec. 2–19, 1932, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, May 23–Nov. 1, 1933, cat. 351 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture for 1934, June 1–Oct. 31, 1934, cat. 240.
Baltimore Museum of Art, A Survey of French Painting, Nov. 23, 1934–Jan. 1, 1935, cat. 33 (ill.).
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, A Survey of French Painting, Apr. 2–May 14, 1936, cat. 42.
Cleveland Museum of Art, The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition, June 26–Oct. 4, 1936, cat. 302.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Renoir: A Special Exhibition of His Paintings, May 18–Sept. 12, 1937, cat. 15 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, The Masterpiece of the Month: Two Little Circus Girls, by August Renoir (French, 1841–1919), Jan. 3–31, 1939, no cat.
Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, De David à Toulouse Lautrec: Chefs-d’oeuvre des collections américaines, Apr. 20–July 3, 1955, cat. 46 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Renoir, Feb. 3–Apr. 1, 1973, cat. 24 (ill.).
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Celebration: Inaugural Exhibition of the Sarah Scaife Gallery of the Museum of Art, Oct. 26, 1974–Jan. 5, 1975, cat. 7 (ill.).
Tokyo, Seibu Museum of Art, Shikago bijutsukan insho-ha ten [The Impressionist tradition: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago], Oct. 18–Dec. 17, 1985, cat. 33 (ill.); Fukuoka Art Museum, Jan. 5–Feb. 2, 1986; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Mar. 4–Apr. 13, 1986.
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874–1886, Jan. 17–Apr. 6, 1986, cat. 134 (ill.); Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Apr. 19–July 6, 1986 (San Francisco only).
Leningrad [St. Petersburg], Hermitage Museum, Ot Delakrua do Matissa: shedevry frantsuzskoĭ zhivopici XIX-nachala XX veka, iz Muieia Metropoliten v Niu-Ĭorke i Khudozhestvennogo Instituta v Chikago [From Delacroix to Matisse: Great Paintings From the XIX century to the Beginning of the XXth century From Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago], March 15-May 19, 1988, cat. 21; Moscow, Pushkin Museum, June 10-July 30, 1988.
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago’s Dream, a World’s Treasure: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1893–1993, Nov. 1, 1993–Jan. 9, 1994, no cat. no.
Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, Renoir’s Portraits: Impressions of an Age, June 27–Sept. 14, 1997, cat. 35 (ill.); Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 17, 1997–Jan. 4, 1998; Fort Worth, Tex., Kimbell Art Museum, Feb. 8–Apr. 26, 1998.
Fort Worth, Tex., Kimbell Art Museum, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, June 29–Nov. 2, 2008, cat. 26 (ill.).
New York, Frick Collection, Renoir, Impressionism, and Full-Length Painting, Feb. 7–May 13, 2012, cat. 44 (ill.).
London, National Gallery, Discover Degas and Miss La La, June 6–Sep. 1, 2024, cat. 28.

The artist (d. 1919); deposited with Durand-Ruel, Paris, Apr. 6, 1881 [per Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1879–84 (no. 3155, as Les Petites acrobates), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file]; sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, May 12, 1882, for 2,000 francs. [This transaction is recorded in the Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1880–82 (no. 2362, as Les Saltimbanques), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file]; sold to Potter Palmer (d. 1902), Chicago, May 11, 1892, for 8,000 francs [per Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1891 (no. 319, as Dans le cirque), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file]; by descent to his wife, Bertha Honoré Palmer (d. 1918), Chicago; by descent their sons, Honoré and Potter Potter; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1922.

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Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando (Francisca and Angelina Wartenberg)

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