At the Circus: The Spanish Walk

The grand master of urban entertainments, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec made many paintings and drawings on the circus theme in the late 1880s and 1890s. He was personally drawn to circus performers—those colorful equestrians, animal trainers, clowns, and acrobats on society's fringes. It was while undergoing treatment for alcoholism at a sanitarium on the outskirts of Paris in 1899 that Lautrec produced an ambitious group of crayon and chalk drawings of circus figures. These imaginative sketches were drawn entirely from memory, without recourse to preliminary studies. The Lehman horse and rider perform the pas espagnol, the ambling gait formalized by the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. It was thanks to these circus drawings that Lautrec earned his release from the sanitarium; their impressive handling convinced doctors of his improving health. As Lautrec left the clinic, he is said to have remarked, "I've bought my release with my drawings."

P.S. A circus appears as a theme in art quite often. Visit the wonderful circus of Dame Laura Knight here. <3