Discover Degas & Miss La La review: 'enthralling' display of period photographs
This art makes an ideological attempt to 'reclaim black models from the shadows'

Edgar Degas' "Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando" is "one of the wilder paintings in the National Gallery's collection", said Laura Freeman in The Times. Painted in 1879, it depicts the celebrated circus performer of its title "hanging on by her teeth" from a dangling rope, viewed from a "crick-your-neck perspective" that heightens the sense of jeopardy. Yet famous as the painting is, Miss La La herself has long since passed into obscurity.
Born Anna Olga Albertina Brown to a white mother and an African-American father in Prussia, she gained fame as an acrobat in 1870s Paris, performing "death-defying stunts from a flying trapeze". This small but "scene-stealing" free show at the National Gallery attempts to show this fascinating figure "in the round", exploring her life and the particular circumstances that led Degas to portray her. His painting is displayed alongside preparatory sketches, archive material, photos and posters, resulting in a "top-notch" exhibition "put together with great showmanship".
Degas' "breathtaking" painting gives the impression that it was created with total spontaneity, said Laura Cumming in the The Observer. Indeed, it's as though the artist is up there with her, "hanging mid-air in the moment". Yet, as we learn here, the composition was painstakingly achieved, the result of months of "sketching at the circus and painting at the studio". Degas even hired an architectural draughtsman to consult about his depiction of the dome of the Cirque Fernando – an auditorium also painted by the likes of Seurat, Picasso and Renoir; some of these works are in this show. But its real star is Olga, as La La was known offstage. One of only two black subjects Degas painted, she is represented here in an "enthralling" display of period photographs. The images document her life from circus stardom to old age, always showing her as "a model of intense professionalism, poise and dignity".
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Olga was clearly "fearless", said Jackie Wullschläger in the Financial Times. For her act, a cannon would be attached to chains, which she would then grasp between her teeth while dangling upside down from a trapeze, and so keeping the cannon suspended in mid-air while it was fired. Her work was as dangerous as it looked: her stage partner died rehearsing a similar stunt to that depicted by Degas. The artist "loved to paint working women" and afforded his subjects "empathy and respect". Still, Miss La La stands out in his art: Degas "monumentalises her", rhyming her body with the circus's "curving arches", her costume's "gold trimming" flowing into its "gilded decor". It's exciting, too, to see the many drawings in which the artist refined his ideas for the final composition and, while the show makes an ideological attempt to reclaim "black models 'from the shadows'", neither Degas or Olga are "pinned down by cultural theory". Overall, this show is a "delight".
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
October 13 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Monday's political cartoons include Donald Trump's consolation prize, government workers during shutdown, and more
-
Can Gaza momentum help end the war in Ukraine?
Today's Big Question Zelenskyy’s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles hints at ‘warming relations’ between Ukraine and US
-
The Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners being released
The Explainer Triumphant Donald Trump addresses the Israeli parliament as families on both sides of the Gaza war reunite with their loved ones
-
The delightful, smutty world of Jilly Cooper
In the Spotlight Millions mourn the ‘Mrs Kipling of sex’
-
Choose your own wellness adventure in Greater Palm Springs
The Week Recommends Hit the spa, try a sound bath or take a hike
-
A Taylor Swift analysis, the digital-addiction solution plus what it means to be a gay Black artist — all in October books
The Week Recommends This month's new releases include ‘Taylor’s Version’ by Stephanie Burt, ‘Enshittification’ by Cory Doctorow and ‘Minor Black Figures’ by Brandon Taylor
-
Lee Miller at the Tate: a ‘sexy yet devastating’ show
The Week Recommends The ‘revelatory’ exhibition tells the photographer’s story ‘through her own impeccable eye’
-
6 eye-catching rounded homes
Feature Featuring a central spiral staircase in Michigan and a Balinese-style estate with ocean views in Hawaii
-
A House of Dynamite: a ‘nail-biting’ nuclear-strike thriller
The Week Recommends ‘Virtuoso talent’ Kathryn Bigelow directs a ‘fast-paced’ and ‘tense’ ‘symphony of dread’
-
The Finest Hotel in Kabul: a ‘haunting’ history of modern Afghanistan
The Week Recommends Lyse Doucet’s sensitively written work traces over 50 years of Kabul’s ‘Inter-Con’ hotel
-
The Smashing Machine: Dwayne Johnson is ‘magnetic’ in gritty biopic
The Week Recommends The wrestler-turned-Hollywood-actor takes on the role of troubled UFC champion Mark Kerr