Edgar Degas | Miss LaLa at the Cirque Fernando Paris, 1879

Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando is an oil on canvas painting by the French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas.

Painted in 1879 and exhibited at the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition in Paris that same year, it is now in the collection of the National Gallery in London.

It is Degas's only circus painting, and Miss La La is the only identifiable person of color in Degas's works.

The special identity of Miss La La and the great skills Degas used in painting her performance in the circus made this piece of art important, widely appreciated but, at the same time, controversial.

Degas visited the recently established Cirque Fernando (built 1875) at least four times between the 19th and 25th of January 1879.

The star attraction was the act of Miss La La, a mixed-race acrobat, known as la femme canon.

The nickname came from her most sensational trick: to fire a cannon suspended on chains that she held in her teeth while hanging from the trapeze, hooked at the knees.

Degas made numerous sketches in his notebook during his visits and at least four pastel studies afterward.

Through these studies, he carefully designed the poses, composition, and color palette of his final painting.

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The painting shows Miss La La suspended from the rafters of the circus dome by a rope clenched between her teeth.

The sense of suspended animation in the scene is consistent with Degas's larger interest in capturing fleeting moments.

This work is Degas's only circus painting.

Unlike his contemporaries like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Georges Seurat, the focus is not on the action within the ring or the crowd's reactions; the viewer sees the spectacle as the audience would have done, gazing up at the daring feat taking place above.

Edgar Degas | Miss Lala at the Fernando Circus, 1879 | Tate, London

The pose of Miss La La was carefully studied and designed by Degas.

In his earlier studies, he experimented with the frontal view of Miss La La instead of the profile view.

In the sketches, Miss La La's head turns backward, hiding her face from the audience, which is similar to her pose on posters advertising her performance.

However, Degas later changed to the profile view, introducing more curves and arches as well as more movement.

Some scholars have connected this pose to contemporary ethnographic photography, suggesting that the profile view turns the woman into "a representation of the race".

By painting her in the profile view, Degas is not portraying her as merely a performer, but a representative for the women of color and the working class.

Degas may have also been seeking to emulate the expansive ceiling paintings by Italian artists such as Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, which he may have seen on his trips to Italy, in painting a highly foreshortened figure.

Edgar Degas | Miss Lala at the Fernando Circus, 1879 | J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.