Discover Degas & Miss La La

Authors: Anne Robbins, Chiara Di Stefano, Laurie Fierstein, Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby, Denise Murrell, Isolde Pludermacher & Christopher Riopelle

The arts: general issues

Published on 4^th June 2024 by National Gallery Company Ltd in the United Kingdom.

Paperback / softback | 120 pages, 71 colour Illus
210mm x 251mm | 0g

The extraordinary story behind Degas’s groundbreaking painting of the biracial circus performer Miss La La   Edgar Degas’s Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando (1879) is one of only two paintings by the artist representing people of colour. Miss La La, born Anna Olga Brown to a white Prussian mother and African-American emancipated slave father, was a renowned performer of extraordinary daring in fin-de-siècle Paris.

  Exploring the fascinating story behind Degas’s painting, this is the first in-depth study to focus on the sitter’s identity, presenting new research on her life and career, as well as unpublished photographic material tracing her tour across Europe. The book also analyses the genesis of Degas’s work, from his rapid sketches completed on the spot to his more elaborate preparatory drawings and pastels.

  The son of a Creole mother from New Orleans, Degas travelled to Louisiana in 1872–73, which was to have a lasting impact on his art. This book examines the artist’s complex attitudes to ethnicity in relation to his own family background, and the representation of multiracial people in late nineteenth-century France.

  Published by National Gallery Global/Distributed by Yale University Press  Exhibition Schedule:  National Gallery, London (June 6–September 1, 2024)