#56 Circus Sideshow — Mug

This is the free show. A *parade de cirque* was staged outside the tent to pull a crowd in, so everyone in the painting is deciding whether to pay. It is Seurat's first night scene, lit entirely by the row of gas jets along the top, and he built the whole thing from dots of colour so the light would feel like it was hanging in the air rather than falling from a lamp. The trombone player has his back to us and is not playing to anyone in particular. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.