At the Circus: The Bareback Rider (Au Cirque: Écuyère)

At the Circus: The Bareback Rider (Au Cirque: Écuyère) — Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. 1888.

Medium: Tambourine with oil on vellum painting. Dimensions: Diam.: 26.7 cm (10 1/2 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

One of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s favorite haunts was the Cirque Fernando, also the subject of his large painting, Equestrienne (At the Cirque Fernando) in the collection of the Art Institute. Like many of the artists in his circle, Toulouse-Lautrec experimented with styles and materials beyond easel painting. His decision to paint on a tambourine with little castanets (called a tambour de basque ) was perhaps inspired by the instrument’s association with bohemian life and creative freedom. The shape of the tambourine mirrors that of the paper hoop held by the clown in the larger painting, so that our view here seems to be framed by the hoop just after the bareback rider has broken through it.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.