La Clownesse Cha-U-Kao au Moulin Rouge

Cha-U-Kao was a real performer at the Moulin Rouge and the Nouveau Cirque in Paris, a female clown and dancer. Even the name is a joke made of sound, a French spelling of chahut and chaos, the rowdy dance and the uproar she brought on stage. Toulouse-Lautrec knew that world from the inside, an aristocrat by birth who spent his nights among its dancers and drew them constantly. Here he skips the spotlight and catches her offstage, in a private room, working a big yellow frill onto the front of her costume with her back half turned. The same sharp yellow ties the little white topknot on her head. He painted it quickly in thinned oils on card, the surface left rough and matte, and gave her the tired, unglamorous concentration of someone getting dressed for work.