Large exhibitions can be fascinating, but more compact ones allow visitors to focus on a specific theme or a few works of art, allowing for a richer, more immersive experience. This is particularly true for the "Discover" series often organized by the National Portrait Gallery in London.
The latest in this series, "Discover Degas & Miss La La" (running until 1st September 2024), offers a chance to revisit the story of a mixed-race acrobat from the 1800s through Degas' sketches and painting.
While Degas is mostly known for his paintings of ballerinas, this exhibition centers on a circus scene. In 1879, Degas attended performances at the newly built Cirque Fernando located in a permanent domed auditorium in Montmartre, Paris. There, he encountered the acrobat Miss La La for the first time. Fascinated by her technical skill, Degas made her the subject of one of his most unique and striking paintings, Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando (1879).
The painting captures one of her most remarkable and daring acts: suspended from a rope held between her teeth by a leather mouthpiece, Miss La La was lifted toward the ceiling of the Cirque Fernando.
The audience is not depicted in the painting, but Degas offers us a unique perspective, that of a spectator, with the acrobat positioned on the left side. The center of the painting is vacant, or rather, it features an architectural element that reveals a section of the ornate gold, orange and green ceiling of the circus. The vertical and diagonal lines create a sense of movement and dynamism, but also a feeling of vertigo.
Degas did not paint this scene at the circus. Instead, he made numerous sketches, set up a trapeze in his studio, and had Miss La La pose for him. This painting, showcased in the exhibition, invites viewers to rediscover not only the artwork itself but also the subject behind it, restoring her identity and honoring her.
Born in 1858 in Szczecin, Prussia (now Poland) to a European mother and an African-American father, Anna Albertine Olga Brown began touring with a circus as a child. Performing under various names, she became the star of Troupe Kaira, a traveling circus act. In addition to Cirque Fernando, she appeared at venues such as the Folies Bergère in Paris and the Royal Aquarium in London.
Known for an array of stunts, Miss La La was famous for being hoisted up to her trapeze by her teeth, hanging from a trapeze while firing a 200-pound cannon suspended on chains held in her teeth. These performances earned her the nickname "la femme canon," a stunt highlighted in a poster for the Folies Bergère included in the exhibition.
She performed until the late 1880s, then married a contortionist and had three daughters who also became circus performers. Miss La La passed away in 1945.
In the exhibition, Miss La La's story is brought to life through a visual narrative. Degas' painting serves as the focal point, but the National Gallery also encourages visitors to explore posters showcasing her performing stunts or with her partner Kaira (in one poster they are depicted as "The Black and White Butterflies"). Additionally, there are never-before-seen photographs of Miss La La in her costumes, with other circus performers, as a woman in society, and later in life as a successful circus manager and family woman.
The exhibition also features Degas' preparatory drawings, including two newly discovered and unpublished pieces. One particularly beautiful drawing shows Miss La La in a blue costume, holding the rope in her teeth. Another drawing features her stage partner Theophilia from the "Miss La La and the Kaira Troupe" also posing for Degas.
The exhibition's final section examines how Degas' work influenced and inspired British art in the 1920s, including artists like Thérèse Lessore and Duncan Grant.
As we explore Miss La La's life and the painting, we gain a new perspective on Degas' complex relationship with the representation of race. Degas, the son of a Creole mother of European descent, is believed to have painted only two works featuring Black people, and this is his only circus painting and the only identifiable person of color in his works. Yet in the painting, Miss La La is depicted with lightened skin tones that reference the palette for the ceiling, and her face is partially hidden (however, in the sketch where she is wearing a blue costume, her skin is much darker).
The painting was first shown at the 4th Impressionist Exhibition in Paris in April 1879, but it failed to impress at the time.
Nonetheless, its daring and modern style remains mesmerizing, and Miss La La, suspended in the air, as free as a butterfly, becomes a powerful metaphor for the resilience of women bravely enduring adversity, even when circumstances leave them hanging by their teeth.
Image credits for this post
1.
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas
Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando, 1879
Oil on canvas
117.2 × 77.5 cm
© The National Gallery, London
2.
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas
Miss Lala at the Cirque Fernando, 1879
Pastel
46.4 x 29.8 cm
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California (2004.93)
Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program.
3.
Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando, about 1880
Albumen silver print on paper mounted on board
© Collection Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, Museum Purchase
4.
Olga, Kaira la Blanche, Popischill et le petit Kara (Trapèze Volant)
Photograph, 13.7 × 8.9 cm
Mucem, Marseille
© Mucem, Marseille
5.
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas
Theofila Paira, 1879
Black pencil on beige paper
17 x 11.2 cm
Galerie La Nouvelle Athènes, Paris (L.1872b)
© Photo courtesy of the owner
6.
Unknown
Cirque d’hiver, 1884-6
Colour lithograph
58.9 x 84.5 cm
Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris (AFF517)
© Mairie de Paris, Photothèque des Musées de la ville de Paris
7.
Emile Lévy Imprimeur
Hippodrome au pont de l’Alma, toutes les Représentations Les Merveilleuses Gymnasiarques Kaira et Olga, 1873-83
Colour litograph
59.5 x 39.7 cm
Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris (AFF287)
© Mairie de Paris, Photothèque des Musées de la ville de Paris
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