When French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas put down his brush, he’d stroll around the corner from his atelier in a working-class Parisian neighbourhood to the Cirque Fernando, inspired by preening horses, trick dogs and circus performers’ fearless acts of highwire derring-do.
Of the tremendous routines he witnessed, the celebrated Black aerialist Miss La La, impressed him immensely, compelling Degas to capture her angelic likeness in one of his most enigmatic works.