As part of the National Gallery’s free ‘Discover’ series, the gallery presents a small exhibition which centres around Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas’s painting, Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando, 1879.
This landmark Impressionist painting records the expertise of circus artist Miss La La, (she was born Anna Albertine Olga Brown, 1858‒1945). This exhibition will take a closer look at Degas’s painting and will reveal new information about Miss La La, her life and career to the public for the first time,
including a number of never-before-seen photographs of Olga, as she was known to her friends and family.
In January 1879 French painter Edgar Degas attended performances at the newly built Cirque Fernando in Paris. Degas was entranced by the dexterity and technical prowess of star acrobat Miss La La, whose act launched her into international fame.
Degas makes her the subject of one of his most original paintings, capturing her suspended from a rope clenched between her teeth, she spirals towards the circus ceiling. Among all other works shown at the 4th Impressionist Exhibition in Paris in April 1879, the painting is one of the most daring and original.
The exhibition features a number of Degas’s preparatory drawings, these include a large drawing of Miss La La, last published over a hundred years ago with her profile delineated three times.
In addition, two newly discovered, unpublished drawings by Degas are displayed: a rare sketch of Miss La La depicted against the circus architecture, hanging from its rafters and an entirely unknown drawing of her stage partner Theophilia, from the ‘Miss La La and the Kaira Troupe’, also posing for Degas.
Born in Szczecin, Prussia (now Poland) to a European mother and an African-American father, Olga’s racial identity, both as a performer and a person, is featured in the exhibition. Showcasing recent research into Black models, the exhibition will restore Miss La La’s name (Anna Albertine Olga Brown). A selection of posters will attest to Olga’s brilliant career, the extent of which had until recently not been fully grasped and her immense success in France, England and beyond.
Newly discovered photographs of Olga depict her as a successful aerialist, in her acrobat outfit, posing next to props or her circus partners. Other photographic portraits of her, also unveiled here for the first time, show multiple facets of her life outside of her work. They show Olga as a woman in society, as well as her later life as a successful circus manager and as a family woman.
Focusing on one of Degas’s masterpieces, and his only painting depicting a non-white sitter whose identity is known, the exhibition will also look at how Degas himself represented and related to people of colour. Although he was himself the son of a Creole mother (of European descent) and was fascinated by the ethnic diversity he saw during a trip to New Orleans in 1872‒73, Degas is believed to have only painted two works representing people of colour. Drawing on recent academic research, a section of the show will investigate his complex relationship to the representation of race.
Featuring new material, from hitherto untraced drawings of her by Degas, to entirely unpublished photographic portraits, and showcasing ground-breaking new research, the exhibition casts a light on Anna Albertine Olga Brown and with this knowledge invites the viewer to look afresh at the painting Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando. This is the third in a series of ‘Discover’ exhibitions, which explore lesser-known masterpieces in a new light. Other exhibitions in this series have included Discover Manet & Eva Gonzalès and Discover Liotard & The Lavergne Family Breakfast.
This fascinating free exhibition illustrates the advantages of showing a limited number of related works. The exhibition allows the viewer to understand some of the context especially the culture of Paris in the late 19th century. Artists of all kinds gravitated towards Paris in the search for the modern and the ‘exotic’. Degas captures some of the excitement and danger of the Circus with his unusual and striking painting of Miss La La. Miss La La is fascinating because she used her athletic talents to overcome the rigid ideas of her background and her femininity. Her skills that captivated Paris and the rest of Europe provided a platform for her to develop in other areas such as a woman in society, as well as her later life as a successful circus manager.
For more information and tickets, visit the National Gallery website here
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