Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando (Francisca and Angelina Wartenberg)
Medium
Oil on canvas
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.)
Classification
painting
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
81558
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This painting depicts a favorite Parisian pastime in the late nineteenth century: attending the circus. Among the enthusiastic crowds at these events were men on the prowl in a world of young female entertainers. But Pierre-Auguste Renoir barely alluded to the unwholesome aspects of this environment, relegating a group of dark-suited men, seated in the front row, to the very top of the composition. “For me a picture . . . should be something likeable, joyous, and pretty,” Renoir insisted. “There...
About the Artist
Pierre-Auguste Renoir · 1841–1919
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) was a founding figure of Impressionism whose luminous depictions of Parisian leisure, sensuous female forms, and sun-dappled landscapes made him one of the most beloved painters in Western art history. Born in Limoges to a working-class family, Renoir began as a porcelain painter before pursuing fine arts, and this early craft experience gave him facility with the...