Blog: Degas and Miss La La

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It's the end of our Leave Year at work, so like approx 99.9% of my colleagues I have had several days off over the past couple of weeks to try and get it all used up. HENCE on Friday afternoon last week I had the day to myself and so decided to set off into London Town to see an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, just for KICKS.

Unfortunately KICKS were not to be had there as the National Portrait Gallery was FULL. There was a big queue all down the road heading to it with some people in hi-vis with walkie talkies at sporadic points saying "At capacity" to each other. Happily there is an entirely other National Gallery - in fact, THE National Gallery - just round the corner so I went in there instead.

The Actual National Gallery is always worth popping into as it's FULL of dead famous pictures, but this time my eye was caught by an EXHIBITION called Discover Degas & Miss La La. It combined two of my favourite types of exhibition, in that it was FREE and also SMALL, so I went and had a wander round and it was GRATE. It was all about the painting Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando which is the one of someone dangling from a rope in the roof of a building - you will know it when you see it, go and have a look!

It is very much WORTH having a look because a) it is fab and b) it made the whole exhibition make sense. If I have one criticism of this exhibition - and I do - it was that they did NOT show a clear image of the painting right away, so the pre-amble about Miss La La herself and the circus etc didn't really make any sense until I went further in and saw The Actual Painting and said "OH! Right! THAT one!"

The Actual Painting was in the centre of the main exhibition, which was done in a circular arrangement a bit like a circus, with other paintings and sketches around the edges. This collected together the working versions what Degas had made, which was VERY interesting and exciting and dead good to have all in the same place. It also made me think "the pencil sketches look just like comics" which I ALWAYS think when I see such things but remains true.

There was lots of background on Miss La La herself, which was a brilliant idea as it made HER part of the story and not just all about Degas. Slightly annoyingly though all that stuff was at the start of the painting, so it did feel weirdly like she was still being excluded from The Actual Art - it was good stuff but I think it would have been better to put it in with everything else so it was on an equal footing.

Apart from that it was FAB, and I especially enjoyed spotting the same DOGS in the multiple pictures and posters of circus DOGS. There was also a full painting by another artist and photographs of the circus itself and this Having It All In One Place made you feel like you KNEW it and had been there.

I liked it a LOT, and it only took about 15 minutes to take in, even when walking round slowly with your hands behind your back trying to look CLEVER. It's on for another few weeks, so I'd highly recommend going and having a look - whether on purpose or because next door's busy!

posted 30/7/2024 by MJ Hibbett

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