Clown

Painted in 1886 and held at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin, this circus clown subject dates to Lautrec's early years in Montmartre when the Cirque Fernando — the permanent indoor circus on the Boulevard de Rochechouart — was a favourite haunt of avant-garde painters. Degas also painted at the Cirque Fernando in this period, and the two artists' treatments of the circus reveal different generational temperaments. For Lautrec, the clown was an alter ego of sorts — a performer who concealed identity beneath costume and make-up, as he himself felt somewhat masked by his physical appearance and aristocratic background within the bohemian world he inhabited.

The early handling shows a looser, more Impressionist-influenced touch than Lautrec's mature style, with broad strokes building the costume's volumes. The composition emphasises the psychological presence of the figure rather than the theatrical spectacle, the clown's painted face rendered with spare, searching characterisation.