Circus: Looking at Paintings

This book is one of a series designed to present many different painters' views of a single subject. This book shows us something about what great artists saw when they were inspired by the skill and spectacle of the circus, with its daring trapeze artists, riotous clowns and dancing bears. Some painters have recreated the excitement that unfolds night after night under the big top. Others have used the circus as a way of expressing other aspects of life, like the tragedy of war. Readers are led on a personal gallery tour of 19 of the author's favourite paintings of the circus. From the work of an unknown Indian artist to Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Georges Seurat, Marc Chagall and others, each artist's vision and interpretation of the circus is unique. Some artists such as Reginald Marsh in " Pip and Flip" and John Steuart Curry in " The Flying Codonas" , depict the drama and excitement traditionally associated with circus acts. Other artists, such as Edward Hopper in " Soir Bleu" and Max Beckmann in " Acrobat on Trapeze" , were more unconventional in their view of the circus and use it as a means to convey the horror and despair they felt about war.Roalf, Peggy is the author of 'Circus: Looking at Paintings' with ISBN 9781562823054 and ISBN 1562823051.