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# Tissot’s “The Circus Lover” and the Private Cirque Molier in Paris, Founded in 1880
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/dzheims-tisso-zhenshchiny-parizha-liubitelnitsa-tsirka-1885-god-muzei-iziashchnykh-iskusstv-v-bostone/
- Published: 2026-10-29T11:31:31.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-29T11:50:12.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Aristocracy, Art, Museums, Mores, Paris

James Tissot, "Women of Paris: The Circus Lover", 1885, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Tissot's series "The Parisian Woman" consisted of 15 large canvases in which the artist depicted Parisiennes of various stations and occupations: a shop assistant, a bridesmaid, a society lady with political ambitions.

Tissot portrayed the circus lovers at a performance at the Cirque Molier. This private circus was founded in 1880 by Ernest Molier, a wealthy Parisian devotee of horsemanship, in his townhouse on the rue Benouville. Once a year a show was staged there in which the performers were not professional artistes but amateurs, many of them aristocrats. Men of fashion worked the trapeze, juggled and showed off equestrian numbers, while their relatives and acquaintances sat in the boxes as spectators. Tickets for these evenings were distributed by invitation, and to be admitted was regarded as a mark of belonging to high society