An arty, circus based outing
Today I met a friend and we went to see the small exhibition Discover Degas & Miss La La at the National Gallery. I really like these small exhibitions (which are free to everyone) as they closely focus on a painting and give you a lot to think about.
The painting featured in this exhibition is this one Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando (1879), painted by the French Impressionist painter, Edgar Degas (1834-1917).
The exhibition went into detail about who Miss La La was (her life and career), how Degas composed the painting and how it was received at the time. Under the cut for more.
This is Anna Albertine Olga Brown (1858-1945), an internationally renowned performer in France. She was known as Olga Brown and was born in Prussia (now Poland) to a white mother and an African American father.
Olga was born into a family with no ties to the circus, but trained in gymnastics in local schools to her hometown.
She first joined a troupe aged 9 and earned the stage name Miss La La in 1877 when she performed with the La La Kaira troupe - this is a publicity photo of the troupe from 1880 with all four members.
In 1878 Olga (aged 20) debuted in Paris with Miss La La and Troupe Kaira. This poster advertises the winter performances at the Cirque Fernando. Degas saw her in this show and was really impressed. She is shown in five poses in this poster.
In 1882 Olga and Theophilia Szterker (known as Kaira) performed as the Black and White Butterflies.
At the Folies-Bergère the climax of Miss La La's show saw her hanging upside down from a trapeze with a 300 kilo (200lb) cannon suspended from her mouth which was fired while she was holding it!
In 1884 Olga and Kaira performed in Madrid and Berlin. In 1886 they premiered the ' silver-plated machine' a set of revolving trapezes (Kaira sadly fell to her death in 1888)
It's easy to forget that permanent circuses were very popular in Europe and Cirque Fernando was one of seven in Paris. Artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso as well as Degas would come to sketch the performers.
Degas' sketch of a performing dog act in 1879:
His sketchbook was in the exhibition, and you can flick through an electronic scan of his sketches here if you want to see how he would sketch parts of his composition such as the columns, windows and the performers (I found it fascinating!).
Degas invited Olga to his studio to further study her act and provided props for her to repeat how she hanged from her mouthpiece in 1879:
Degas sent his painting of Miss La La to the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition in Paris. It attracted very little attention and did not sell. He kept it in his studio for almost 25 years before it was sent to exhibitions outside France and was eventually bought by a Canadian billionaire, purchased by the National Gallery in 1925.
It was unlikely that Olga saw the painting in London. She married Manuel Woodson (an African American contortionist) - they had three daughters and the family settled in Belgium where she ran a café for stage artists. She also managed her niece's and daughters' performing careers. This photo is from 1899.
A gorgeous photo of her in 1887
Here she is aged 80 in 1938 in Brussels (she died in 1945 aged 87).
It was an excellent snapshot of the life of Miss La La and the time it must have taken for Degas to produce the painting. I'm really pleased we went to see it, especially as some of the information about her has only recently been discovered.
The painting featured in this exhibition is this one Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando (1879), painted by the French Impressionist painter, Edgar Degas (1834-1917).
The exhibition went into detail about who Miss La La was (her life and career), how Degas composed the painting and how it was received at the time. Under the cut for more.
This is Anna Albertine Olga Brown (1858-1945), an internationally renowned performer in France. She was known as Olga Brown and was born in Prussia (now Poland) to a white mother and an African American father.
Olga was born into a family with no ties to the circus, but trained in gymnastics in local schools to her hometown.
She first joined a troupe aged 9 and earned the stage name Miss La La in 1877 when she performed with the La La Kaira troupe - this is a publicity photo of the troupe from 1880 with all four members.
In 1878 Olga (aged 20) debuted in Paris with Miss La La and Troupe Kaira. This poster advertises the winter performances at the Cirque Fernando. Degas saw her in this show and was really impressed. She is shown in five poses in this poster.
In 1882 Olga and Theophilia Szterker (known as Kaira) performed as the Black and White Butterflies.
At the Folies-Bergère the climax of Miss La La's show saw her hanging upside down from a trapeze with a 300 kilo (200lb) cannon suspended from her mouth which was fired while she was holding it!
In 1884 Olga and Kaira performed in Madrid and Berlin. In 1886 they premiered the ' silver-plated machine' a set of revolving trapezes (Kaira sadly fell to her death in 1888)
It's easy to forget that permanent circuses were very popular in Europe and Cirque Fernando was one of seven in Paris. Artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso as well as Degas would come to sketch the performers.
Degas' sketch of a performing dog act in 1879:
His sketchbook was in the exhibition, and you can flick through an electronic scan of his sketches here if you want to see how he would sketch parts of his composition such as the columns, windows and the performers (I found it fascinating!).
Degas invited Olga to his studio to further study her act and provided props for her to repeat how she hanged from her mouthpiece in 1879:
Degas sent his painting of Miss La La to the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition in Paris. It attracted very little attention and did not sell. He kept it in his studio for almost 25 years before it was sent to exhibitions outside France and was eventually bought by a Canadian billionaire, purchased by the National Gallery in 1925.
It was unlikely that Olga saw the painting in London. She married Manuel Woodson (an African American contortionist) - they had three daughters and the family settled in Belgium where she ran a café for stage artists. She also managed her niece's and daughters' performing careers. This photo is from 1899.
A gorgeous photo of her in 1887
Here she is aged 80 in 1938 in Brussels (she died in 1945 aged 87).
It was an excellent snapshot of the life of Miss La La and the time it must have taken for Degas to produce the painting. I'm really pleased we went to see it, especially as some of the information about her has only recently been discovered.