{
"data": {
"id": 135517,
"accession_number": "1958.56",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Circus, 1889. Attributed to Suzanne Valadon (French, 1865\u20131938). Oil on fabric; unframed: 48.8 x 60 cm (19 3/16 x 23 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr., 1958.56",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The Circus",
"creation_date": "1889",
"creation_date_earliest": 1889,
"creation_date_latest": 1889,
"artists_tags": [
"female"
],
"culture": [
"France, 19th century"
],
"technique": "oil on fabric",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Modern European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Unframed: 48.8 x 60 cm (19 3/16 x 23 5/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"unframed": {
"height": 0.488,
"height_inch": 19,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.1875,
"width": 0.6,
"width_inch": 23,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.625
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Signed lower right, carved into wet paint with blunt end of brush: Suzanne Valadon 89 Souvenir\r\n",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 445693,
"title": "Circus and Carnival",
"description": "Circus and Carnival. Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-May 15, 1970).",
"opening_date": "1970-02-17T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 444146,
"title": "The Circus in Art",
"description": "The Circus in Art. John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL (organizer) (January 20-June 1, 1977).",
"opening_date": "1977-01-20T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Cleveland Public Library. Circus and Carnival (1970), no cat.",
"opening_date": "1970-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Karamu House, Cleveland. Extended loan, May 1959-January 1970, June 1970-September 1975.",
"opening_date": "1959-05-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Sarasota, John and Mable Ringling Museum; Gainesville, Fla., University Gallery. The Circus in Art (1976-77), 31 (repr.).",
"opening_date": "1976-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "The Hanna Collection of Modern Masterpieces. J.B.Speed Memorial Museum, Louisville, KY (February 13-March 5,1944).",
"opening_date": "2013-02-01T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Myria Barnwell, Nice. According to label on reverse, sold at auction in 1939. Valentine Gallery, New York, 1942. Bought by Leonard C. Hanna Jr., 12 January 1942, New York and Cleveland. Bequeathed to the CMA in 1958.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Besides being a prolific painter, Suzanne Valdon served as the model for Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "The attribution of this painting to Suzanne Valadon has been rejected by several authorities. Others support the attribution, arguing that the painting is merely atypical because it is an early work, signed and dated 1889. Valadon did not begin to develop her mature style until 1891.She was the mother of artist Maurice Utrillo and a prolific painter herself, although she never received any formal artistic training.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60465167"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1958.56-the-circus"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: no. 40",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "\"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums.\" The Art Quarterly 21, no. 1 (Spring 1958): 82-106.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 106",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Francis, Henry S. \"Report for the Year 1958: Painting Department.\" The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art XLVI no. 6 (June, 1959): 115-122",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 122",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Harkonen, Helen Bernice, and Robert Clark Nelson. Circuses and Fairs in Art. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications Co, 1965.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 13",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Jensen, Dean, and Rosalie Goldstein. Center Ring, the Artist: Two Centuries of Circus Art. Milwaukee, MN: Milwaukee Art Museum, 1981.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 61; Reproduced: 9. 64, no. 100.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 246",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Brade, Johanna. Suzanne Valadon: vom Modell in Montmartre zur Malerin der Klassischen Moderne. Stuttgart, Germany: Belser, 1994.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 15,91; Reproduced: p. 32-33",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Marchesseau, Daniel. Suzanne Valadon: [exposition] 26 janvier-27 mai 1996. Martigny, Switzerland: Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 1996.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 273",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "D'Argencourt, Louise and Roger Diederen. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue of Paintings, Part Four; European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 215",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.56",
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"date_created": "2013-04-04T17:55:33",
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"creditline": "Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 135517,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1827,
"description": "Suzanne Valadon (French, 1865\u20131938)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": "attributed to",
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Born out of wedlock under the given name Marie-Cl\u00e9mentine, Suzanne Valadon spent her early years in Paris and Nantes, where her single mother worked as a cleaning woman. Valadon was enrolled in a religious school in Paris until 1876, then apprenticed in a dressmaking shop, a florist, and an open-air market before she started drawing. She briefly worked as a trapeze artist in a circus in the beginning of the 1880s, but a fall forced her to look for another occupation. She then began working as a model, posing for Henner (q.v.), Puvis de Chavannes (q.v.), Renoir (q.v.), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), and several other painters. Around this time she chose to be called Suzanne. In 1883, when she was eighteen years old, she gave birth to a son, future painter Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955). Encouraged by Degas (q.v.) and Renoir, she became a full-time painter in 1896, financially supported by her new husband, Paul Mousis. Degas taught her printmaking and introduced her to the dealers Durand-Ruel and Vollard. Valadon divorced Mousis in 1909 to marry Andr\u00e9 Utter (1886-1948), a painter and a friend of her son. Beginning in 1909 she exhibited regularly at the Salon d'Automne, and from 1912 she participated in the Salon des Ind\u00e9pendants. Valadon painted portraits, landscapes, nudes, and still lifes.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1865",
"death_year": "1938",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1958-11-29T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1889,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1889",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": true,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:55:24.566000"
}
}