Study for the Circus Sideshow by Georges Seurat
This is the small study that in the end led to The Circus Sideshow. The straight lines dividing the panel are still visible. In one sense, it is already complete, for it gives off light like tinsel on a Christmas tree. It fairly sizzles and crackles.
Seurat gave a great deal of thought to the organization of this picture. He drew many groups of dancers, clowns, a dancer resting, shivering inside the cloak thrown over her shoulders, groups of spectators under a stunted boulevard tree, and idlers held spellbound by the sideshow barkers.
So far as the subject is concerned, Seurat had one great precursor - Daumier. The latter's Mountebank's Side Show is set in daylight and is impetuous in its dynamism. Seurat's painting is very different: it represents an uncomplicated, routine carnival performance under artificial light, the kind that exudes bored professionalism, where the laughs are forced, played to a scattering of onlookers.
Originally Seurat planned to show a woman in profile (he made a drawing of her) instead of the ringmaster with the riding crop.
