| Le Clown au Cirque | |
| Artist: | Marc Chagall |
| Medium: | tempera and pen and ink on board |
| Height Metric: | 46 |
| Length Metric: | 54.6 |
| Owner: | Private collection |
Le Clown au Cirque is a tempera and pen and ink on board painting by Belarusian-French artist Marc Chagall created in 1980. It is held in a private collection.
The painting depicts floating clowns amid the circus ring in the middle of the performance.[1] The subject of circus was dear to the artist.[2] Chagall often returned to the circus as a subject matter in his artworks.[3] He considered clowns, acrobats and actors as tragically human beings who are like characters in certain religious paintings.[4]
Among other contemporary painters who featured the circus in their works are Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Rouault, Van Dongen and Léger.