Miss La La was here. Kind of

Now-hailed painting's time spent here may have had a lasting influence on a Toronto cultural institution still standing today

- EDWARD BROWN

"Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando," by Edgar Degas, 1879, was purchased by Toronto tycoon Cawthra Mulock, who built the Royal Alexandra Theatre.

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.

From a Paris studio to a Jarvis Street mansion, Edgar Degas’s 1879 painting “Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando,” currently a special exhibition at The National Gallery in London, reveals a fascinating story about the subject and the painting’s link to Toronto.

In preparation for a major exhibition celebrating The National Gallery’s bicentenary, Ottawa-born curator Christopher Riopelle performed a deep dive into aspects of the work, including research on Miss La La’s identity and exploring why Toronto’s playboy millionaire, Cawthra Mulock, purchased Degas’s famous painting in 1905.

Historical promotional art of Miss La La's performances and the painting "Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando" are displayed at the National Gallery in London in June.

According to Riopelle, little was known about aerialist Anna Albertine Olga Brown until now. Known as Olga to friends, she was born in 1858 in what is today Szczecin, Poland. Her father was an African American sea merchant from Philadelphia, and her mother was Germanic.