# Circus Sideshow (Parade de cirque)

**Georges Seurat** (French, 1859–1891)  
1887–88  
Oil on canvas  
39 1/4 x 59 in. (99.7 x 149.9 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 61.101.17. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437654).

## About this work

Under the glow of gas lamps, a trombonist stands on a platform outside a travelling circus in Paris, flanked by musicians and a ringmaster, while spectators line up in silhouette along the bottom edge. The scene is a parade, the free sample of entertainment staged to lure passers-by into a paid show. Seurat painted it with small, separate touches of colour and built the composition on strict horizontals and verticals, creating an eerie, frozen stillness. He exhibited it at the Salon des Indépendants in 1888.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Georges Seurat painted this in 1887–88, aged about 28. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [Georges Seurat](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/georges-seurat)

French, 1859–1891; born in Paris; died in Paris

Seurat trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and studied the colour theories of Chevreul and others before developing pointillism, building pictures from small, separate touches of pure colour meant to combine in the eye. His large compositions, planned through many drawings and oil sketches, include Bathers at Asnières and A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884, shown at the last Impressionist exhibition in 1886. His black conté crayon drawings are equally distinctive. He died suddenly at thirty-one.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Paintings
- The artist was about 28
- Real size: about 39 × 59 in (100 × 150 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 20 × 30 in, so every print is a reduction.
- Century: 19th century
- Movement: [Post-Impressionism](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/post-impressionism)
- Subjects: Musical Instruments, Men, Women, Circus, Musicians
- Colour: black
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1155.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1155/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/circus-sideshow-parade-de-cirque-met-437654).