This book is one of a series designed to present many different painters' views
of a single subject. This book shows us something about what great artists saw
when they were inspired by the skill and spectacle of the circus, with its
daring trapeze artists, riotous clowns and dancing bears. Some painters have
recreated the excitement that unfolds night after night under the big top.
Others have used the circus as a way of expressing other aspects of life, like
the tragedy of war. Readers are led on a personal gallery tour of 19 of the
author's favourite paintings of the circus. From the work of