Equestrienne (At the Cirque Fernando)

<p>This work, set at a circus, captures the tense moment in which a female trick rider prepares to stand up on her horse and leap through a paper hoop held by a clown. The horse gathers speed, spurred on by the whip of famous ringmaster Monsieur Loyal. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec may have based the garishly made-up rider, dressed in a tutu of gauze and sequins, on Suzanne Valadon, a former circus performer, model, and artist with whom he had a nearly three-year relationship. The rider seems to snarl at Monsieur Loyal, who glares back at her. Toulouse-Lautrec’s setting is the same circus in Montmartre depicted in Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s portrait of the <a href="https://www.artic.edu/artworks/81558/acrobats-at-the-cirque-fernando-francisca-and-angelina-wartenberg">Wartenberg sisters</a>.</p> <p>This is one of thirty-five works that comprise the Winterbotham Collection. <a href="https://www.artic.edu/the-winterbotham-collection">Click here to learn more about the collection.</a></p>