Seurat's Circus Sideshow

Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 17 February - 29 May 2017

Parade de cirque (or Circus Sideshow) was first exhibited in Paris 1888 by French Neo-Impressionist painter Georges-Pierre Suerat (1859-1891). The Pointillist painting depicts the parade of the Circus Corvi at place de la Nation as night falls. It forms part of a series of work by Seurat exploring public entertainment and Parisian street life.

This exhibition catalogue is the first compelling study of Parade de cirque, embracing the once unappreciated painting as a pioneer of circus-themed art. It fuses Seurat's collection with the social changes of nineteenth-century France, his influences on other modernist movements and his connection to a host of other artists like Picasso.