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Thomson, Richard with contributions by Susan Alyson Stein, Charlotte Hale, and Silvia A. Centeno (2017)
This title is out of print.
Georges Seurat (1859–1891) created just six major figure paintings during his lifetime, one of which, the alluring Circus Sideshow (Parade de cirque), has remained the most challenging to interpret since it first intrigued viewers at the 1888 Salon des Indépendants in Paris. Unlike Seurat’s earlier sunlit scenes, Circus Sideshow presents a nighttime tableau depicting a parade—a street show enticing passersby to purchase tickets. With its geometrically precise composition, muted colors, and elements of abstraction, the painting stands apart as a masterpiece of Neo-Impressionism and heralds Seurat’s subsequent depictions of popular entertainments.
This book, the first comprehensive study of Circus Sideshow, situates the painting in the context of nineteenth-century Paris and of the many social changes France was undergoing. Renowned art historian Richard Thomson illuminates the roles of caricature, naturalist and avant-garde painting, and circus advertising; examines Seurat’s use of contemporary aesthetic theory; and discusses how artists ranging from Rouault to Picasso mined the sideshow theme into the twentieth century. Illustrated with Seurat’s related drawings, works by other artists, and period posters and broadsides, Seurat’s Circus Sideshow delves into the history of traveling circuses and seasonal fairs in France, exploring the ongoing appeal of this traditional form of popular entertainment through the fin de siècle. Two additional essays describe the painting’s enthusiastic reception in New York upon its 1929 debut and present the results of a fresh technical examination of the canvas, making this volume the definitive resource on one of Seurat’s most captivating works.
Director’s Foreword
Acknowledgments
Lenders to the Exhibition
Seurat’s Circus Sideshow : A Parade of ParadoxesRichard Thomson
Circus Sideshow Comes to TownSusan Alyson Stein
Seurat’s Circus Sideshow : Materials, Technique, EvolutionCharlotte Hale and Silvia A. Centeno
Notes
Checklist
Selected Bibliography
Provenance and Exhibition History
Index
Photograph Credits
Richard Thomson is Watson Gordon Professor of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh.
Susan Alyson Stein is Engelhard Curator of Nineteenth-Century European Painting in the Department of European Paintings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Charlotte Hale is Conservator in the Department of Paintings Conservation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Silvia A. Centeno is Research Scientist in the Department of Scientific Research at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Print Titles
Abramatis, Dorothy, Maryan W. Ainsworth, Katharine Baetjer, Lucy Belloli, Silvia Centeno, Charlotte Hale, Marsha Hill, Walter Liedtke, Dorothy Mahon, Marijn Manuels, Dianne Dwyer Modestini, Olga Raggio, Deborah Schorsch, Marjorie Shelley, M. Kirby Talley Jr., Thayer Tolles, and Frank Zuccari. Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 40 (2005). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. See more
Abramitis, Dorothy H., Julie Arslanoglu, Linda Borsch, Silvia A. Centeno, Federico Carò;, Tony Frantz, Marco Leona, Dorothy Mahon, Julia Schultz, and Mark T. Wypyski. "Scientific Research in The Metropolitan Museum of Art": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 67, no. 1 (Summer, 2009). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009. See more
Ainsworth, Maryan W. and Joshua P. Waterman with contributions by Timothy B. Husband and Karen E. Thomas, with Dorothy Mahon, Charlotte Hale, George Bisacca, Silvia A. Centeno, and Peter Klein. German Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1350-1600. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013. See more
Albertson, Gerrit, Silvia A. Centeno, and Adam Eaker. "Margareta Haverman, A Vase of Flowers: An Innovative Artist Reexamined": Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 54 (2019). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. See more
Bayer, Andrea, Dorothy Mahon, and Silvia A. Centeno. "An Examination of Paolo Veronese’s Portrait of Alessandro Vittoria": Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 52. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017. See more
Bayer, Andrea, Lawrence Becker, Federico Carò, Silvia A. Centeno, Ann Heywood, Lucretia Kargère, Dorothy Mahon, Adriana Rizzo, Xavier F. Salomon, Deborah Schorsch, Donna Strahan, and Mark T. Wypyski. Metropolitan Museum Studies in Art, Science, and Technology. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010. See more
Centeno, Silvia. "The daguerreotype surface as a SERS substrate: characterization of image deterioration in plates from the nineteenth-century studio of Southworth & Hawes," Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, v. 39 (2008), pp. 914–921.. n/a: n/a, 2008.
Gregory H. Bailey, Federico Carò, Silvia A. Centeno, Janet G. Douglas, Christina Hagelskamp, John T. Haynes, Robyn E. Hodgkins, Edward A. Hunter, Lucretia Kargère, Nora W. Kennedy, Sarah Kleiner, Michele D. Marincola, Martin Polkinghorne, Deborah Schorsch, Anna Serotta, Karen E. Thomas, and Anna Vila. Metropolitan Museum Studies in Art, Science, and Technology, Volume 2. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014. See more
Kennedy, Nora W., Louisa Smieska, Silvia A. Centeno, and Marina Ruiz Molina. "A Hidden Photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron": Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 53 (2018). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018. See more
Mahon, Dorothy. "A Technical Study of John Singer Sargent's Portrait of Madame Pierre Gautreau." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 40 (2005). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. See more
Monahan, Anne, Isabelle Duvernois, and Sylvia A. Centeno. "'Working My Thought More Perfectly': Horace Pippin’s The Lady of the Lake": Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 52. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017. See more
Pinson, Stephen C., with contributions by Sylvie Aubenas, Olivier Caumont, Silvia A. Centeno, Thomas Galifot, Nora W. Kennedy, Grant B. Romer, Martina Rugiadi, Andrea E. Schlather, Lindsey S. Stewart, Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, and Ariadna Cervera Xicotencatl. Monumental Journey: The Daguerreotypes of Girault de Prangey. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018. See more
Shibayama, Nobuko, Dorothy Mahon, Silvia A. Centeno, and Federico Carò. "John Singer Sargent’s Mrs. Hugh Hammersley: Colorants and Technical Choices to Depict an Evening Gown": Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 53 (2018). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018. See more
Stein, Susan Alyson, with essays by Charlotte Hale, Silvia Centeno, Alison Hokanson, and Marina Kliger. Van Gogh's Cypresses. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: New York, 2023. See more
Thomson, Richard with contributions by Susan Alyson Stein, Charlotte Hale, and Silvia A. Centeno. Seurat's Circus Sideshow. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017. See more
Amory, Dita with contributions by Philippe Cézanne, Ann Dumas, Charlotte Hale, Kathryn Kremnitzer, Marjorie Shelley, and Hilary Spurling. Madame Cézanne. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 17, 2014.
Baetjer, Katharine, with Marjorie Shelley, Charlotte Hale, and Cynthia Moyer. "Benjamin Franklin, Ambassador to France: Portraits by Joseph Siffred Duplessis": Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 52 (2017). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017. See more
Hale, Charlotte. "Dating Velázquez's The Supper at Emmaus." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 40 (2005). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. See more
Ives, Colta, and Susan Alyson Stein, with Charlotte Hale and Marjorie Shelley. The Lure of the Exotic: Gauguin in New York Collections. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002. See more
Sonnenburg, Hubertus von. "The Changing Image: Studies in Paintings Conservation." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 51, no. 3 (Winter, 1993–94). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. See more
Tinterow, Gary. "'Portraits by Ingres, Image of an Epoch': Reflections, Technical Observations, Addenda, and Corrigenda." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 35 (2000). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. See more
Distel, Anne, and Susan Alyson Stein. Cézanne to Van Gogh: The Collection of Doctor Gachet. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999. See more
Dumas, Ann, Colta Ives, Susan Alyson Stein, and Gary Tinterow, with contributions by Françoise Cachin, Caroline Durand-Ruel Godfroy, Richard Kendall, Mari Kálmán Meller and Juliet Wilson-Bareau, Rebecca A. Rabinow, Theodore Reff, and Barbara Stern Shapiro. The Private Collection of Edgar Degas: A Summary Catalogue. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997. See more
Ferretti-Bocquillon, Marina, Anne Distel, John Leighton, and Susan Alyson Stein, with contributions by Kathryn Calley Galitz and Sjaar van Heugten. Signac, 1863–1935: Master Neo-Impressionist. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001. See more
Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney, Gary Tinterow, Susan Alyson Stein, Gretchen Wold, and Julia Meech, with contributions by Maryan W. Ainsworth, Dorothea Arnold, Katherine Baetjer, Janet S. Byrne, Keith Christiansen, Hyung-min Chung, Barbara B. Ford, James H. Frantz, Maxwell K. Hearn, Colta Ives, Marilyn Jenkins, Walter Liedtke, Joan R. Mertens, Helen B. Mules, Morihiro Ogawa, Hiroshi Onishi, Rebecca A. Rabinow, Suzanne G. Valenstein, Clare Vincent, Daniel Walker, James C. Y. Watt, and H. Barbara Weinberg. Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. See more
Herbert, Robert L., Françoise Cachin, Anne Distel, Susan Alyson Stein, and Gary Tinterow. Georges Seurat, 1859–1891. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991. See more
Ives, Colta Feller. The Private Collection of Edgar Degas: A Summary Catalogue. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997. See more
Ives, Colta, Susan Alyson Stein, Sjraar van Heugten, and Marije Vellekoop, with Marjorie Shelley. Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. See more
Ives, Colta, and Susan Alyson Stein. Goya in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995. See more
Stein, Susan Alyson, and Asher Ethan Miller, eds., with texts by Colin B. Bailey, Joseph J. Rishel, Mark Rosenthal, and Susan Alyson Stein. The Annenberg Collection: Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009. See more
Tinterow, Gary, Kathryn Calley Galitz, Asher E. Miller, Rebecca A. Rabinow, Sabine Rewald, and Susan Alyson Stein. Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007. See more
Tinterow, Gary, and Susan Alyson Stein, eds., with contributions by Magdalena Dabrowski, Lisa M. Messinger, Asher Ethan Miller, Marla Prather, Rebecca A. Rabinow, Sabine Rewald, Samantha Rippner, Gary Tinterow, Lucy Belloli, Shawn Digney-Peer, Isabelle Duvernois, Rachel Mustalish, Kendra Roth, and Christel Hollevoet-Force. Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010. See more
Tinterow, Gary, compiled with Susan Alyson Stein and Barbara Burn. The New Nineteenth-Century European Paintings and Sculpture Galleries. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. See more
Taking as its focus one of The Met's most captivating masterpieces, this thematic exhibition will afford a unique context for appreciating the heritage and allure of Circus Sideshow (Parade de cirque), painted in 1887–88 by Georges Seurat (1859–1891). Anchored by a remarkable group of related works by Seurat that will fully illuminate the lineage of the motif in his inimitable conté crayon drawings, the presentation will explore the fascination the sideshow subject held for other artists in the nineteenth century, ranging from the great caricaturist Honoré Daumier at mid-century to the young Pablo Picasso at the fin de siècle.
This rich visual narrative will unfold in a provocative display of more than 100 paintings, drawings, prints, period posters, and illustrated journals, supplemented by musical instruments and an array of documentary material intended to give a vivid sense of the seasonal fairs and traveling circuses of the day. Among the highlights will be Fernand Pelez's epic Grimaces and Misery—The Saltimbanques (Petit Palais, Paris), of exactly the same date as Seurat's magisterial work and, with its lifesize performers aligned in friezelike formation across a 20-foot stage, a match for his ambition.
More on the exhibition