The Tightrope Walker

Forain made a strict compositional separation between the realms of illusion (the performer) and reality (the spectator) in The Tightrope Walker. The performer balances precariously above the crowd, her weight forcing the rope to sag until it virtually touches the heads of her admirers. She has no special individuality and seems utterly unaware of her surroundings. In a sense, she is a performing doll, ignored by all but a few in the audience who stroll beneath her. She is the carnival equivalent of Degas’s ballet dancers, dressed as she is in a tutu and ballet slippers, despite the relative vulgarity of both her skill and her audience. Where Degas’s ballerinas strain to be weightless, Forain’s tightrope walker balances her weight so that she can stay above the crowd; and the artist captured her at precisely the moment of her triumph.