Two Little Circus Girls
Analysis
Two Little Circus Girls, commonly known as Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando, is one of the widely known paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The painting showcases two young circus girls, Angelina and Francisca Wartenberg, who performed as acrobats in the famous Paris-based Cirque Fernando. While the painting depicts them at the circus ring’s center, the young acrobats actually posed in Renoir’s studio, paving the way for him to paint them in daylight. The author portrays them as if to signify that they have just finished their performance and are taking their final appreciatory bows. While one girl turns to acknowledge the crowd, the other girl faces the viewer with an armful of oranges, a tribute tossed by the audience.
Renoir painted the two circus performers as if in the open air, building up diaphanous paint layers to accord the performers a close to luminous quality. The artist also purposefully matches the two girls’ environment, where their outfits complement the gold tones of the oranges in Angelina’s hands and the floor, respectively. For the most part, the painter avoided the circus’ unsavory parts, providing a mere hint of the male-dominated crowd who made up the 19th-century nocturnal demimonde. Ideally, the Renoir was among the leading painters of the impressionist style of painting, a style characterized by relatively thin, small, yet visible brush strokes, emphasis on the effectual depiction of light in its ever-changing qualities (which often accentuates the passage of time effects), open composition, the inclusion of movement, ordinary subject matter as an essential element of human experience and perception, and commonly unusual visual angles.
Renoir constructs his painting from freely brushed colors that take precedence over contours and lines. The painting largely captures the transient and momentary sunlight effects due to the fact that it was painted in natural light. Rather than details, the painting portrays overall visual effects through the application of short “broken” brush strokes of pure unmixed and mixed color – not shaded or merged smoothly – in the quest to achieve an intense color vibration effect. Renoir adopts a unique technique of art, one that is largely characterized by movement and immediacy, of candid compositions and poses, altering light expressed in a varied and bright use adoption of color.
When one takes a closer look at the painting, it’s observable that colors are applied side by side with minimal mixing, an aspect that takes advantage of the simultaneous contrast principle to make the painting’s orange, gold, and white colors appear more vivid to the observer, or in this case, the viewer. Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando is notable for its saturated color and vibrant light, focusing on the two girls in a candid position. The painter depicts the details of the circus performance scene through the adoption of touches of color that are freely brushed, paving the way for the two girls not only to fuse with one another but with their surrounding as well. Unlike most of Renoir’s paintings, Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando outlines an enclosed open-air scene with an audience. The painting is a typical Impressionist real-life snapshot, one engraved with sparkling light and color (Clayson). The paint does not take advantage of thin paint films (glazes) transparency, an aspect evident in the painting’s opaque nature.
Interpretation
The painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir depicts two fashionably-costumed, innocent-looking young female circus performers who are taking their bows before a seemingly amused crowd. As one takes a closer look and learns more about the painting, one observes that the girls’ beauty and innocence are cleverly manufactured. Francisca and Angelina, the two sisters in the painting, are members of a roaming German acrobatic troupe. To some point, the painting captures the performers’ nuances. Each girl’s pose serves a great deal in suggesting their different extant personalities. It is agreeable that the girl on the left loves the attention from the crowd, evident in her bows and poses. While there are many oranges tossed all over the floor by the crowd in appreciation for their performance, she doesn’t pay any attention to them as long as she’s subjected to attention. Also, she poses as if to pass the message that she was the better performer.
The girl on the right, on the other hand, seems somewhat troubled or, rather, uncomfortable with the attention subjected to them. Unlike her sister, who poses in appreciation for the crowd’s cheers, the girl on the right is more inclined towards the material rewards (oranges), evident in how she hogs the oranges. Their different poses depict their different personalities. For the most part, the girl on the right could be described as somewhat materialistic while the girl on the left could be described as somewhat self-centered. Additionally, based on their facial expression, more so the girl on the right, one can observe that there exists some sort of sibling rivalry between the two sisters. The girl with the oranges seems somewhat put off by her sister’s over-competitive nature, an aspect that is observable in her facial expression.
Informed opinion
Renoir’s work signifies his interest in urban leisure themes. Most critics argue that he portrayed Angelina and Francisca Wartenberg as being significantly younger than their actual respective ages of seventeen and fourteen. Furthermore, rather than having them pose in the circus, Renoir had them pose in his studio; he had the opinion that painting them in natural light would be more flattering than painting them in the circus’ gaslight. He created an effectual harmony, using thin washes of paint to build up forms, using multidirectional and delicate brushwork.
This is emphasized by his whimsical color scheme, with the circus floor’s oranges and yellows being depicted in the girls’ costumes, including their skin tones’ delicate reflections. The dressed-in-black male spectators are situated along the sunny scene’s top; their likely role as female circus performers’ patrons is scarcely hinted by Renoir in this aspect. While this painting depicts the Renoir’s enchantment with childhood innocence, the mainly male spectators portray the nocturnal and less wholesome demimonde of the nineteenth-century circus in which the two girls grew up. With this in mind, it is noticeable that Renoir’s artistic style was hinged in impressionist principles, which largely incorporated a mix and integration of colors spanning from muted to dark and vibrant.
Works Cited
Clayson, Hollis. Painted love: prostitution in French art of the impressionist era. Getty Publications, 2003.
Denvir, Bernard. The chronicle of impressionism: a timeline history of impressionist art. Bulfinch Press, 1993.