# Equestrienne (At the Cirque Fernando)

- By: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864–1901)
- Date: 1887–88
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 100.3 × 161.3 cm (39 1/2 × 63 1/2 in.); Framed: 123.2 × 181 × 8.3 cm (48 1/2 × 71 1/4 × 3 1/4 in.)
- Culture: France
- Credit line: Joseph Winterbotham Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/16146)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/65db9e21-83c3-1cc6-7240-1e1996d87f52/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This work, set at a circus, captures the tense moment in which a female trick rider prepares to stand up on her horse and leap through a paper hoop held by a clown. The horse gathers speed, spurred on by the whip of famous ringmaster Monsieur Loyal. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec may have based the garishly made-up rider, dressed in a tutu of gauze and sequins, on Suzanne Valadon, a former circus performer, model, and artist with whom he had a nearly three-year relationship. The rider seems to snarl at Monsieur Loyal, who glares back at her. Toulouse-Lautrec’s setting is the same circus in Montmartre depicted in Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s portrait of the Wartenberg sisters.

This is one of thirty-five works that comprise the Winterbotham Collection. Click here to learn more about the collection.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0