Miss La La (part of The Two Butterflies)
Miss La La is one of the pair of circus models based on a Victorian travelling double act: Les Deux Papillons (The Two Butterflies). Her partner is Kaira (seen separately) and each can be bought solo or together as the performing duo.
Miss La La (born Anna Albertine Olga Brown on April 21 1858 in Prussia) was the daughter of a black German father and white Prussian mother. She started performing circus acts around the age of 9 and continued to develop her significant skills and strength as well as notoriety and mythology, thanks in part to her race and sex.. She was called the Black Venus, La Mulâtresse-Canon, Venus of the Tropics, the Black Pearl. All kinds of exotic stories circulated about her but it wasn’t until 1911 that the world discovered she wasn’t African and none of these stories were true…by which time she had retired from the circus world anyway!
What was true however was that La La was an immensely strong and impressive performer, and nobody had ever seen anything quite like her. She was known for her ‘iron jaw’ act where she would hang from a trapeze and a canon would be suspended from her jaw, which would then fire along with many other great feats. After working together for many year she joined forces in 1883 with Miss Kaira and toured the world as Les Deux Papillons, dazzling sold out theatres in many cities until Kaira tragically died during a show. After that Miss La La worked successfully as a solo performer and then in a troupe with her husband, a handsome contortionist called Emmanuel Woodman. They moved to Brussels in the early 1900s with three daughters and settled there, retiring from show business and managing the opulent entertainment pavilion at the Palais d’Eté. After Emmanuels death in 1915 Olga applied for a visa to USA and left in 1919, at which point the trail of her story runs cold.
A small but significant part of Miss La La’s story is that she was painted by Degas in 1879 while hanging from her mouth in his only circus painting ‘Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando’.
Miss La La is part of the larger circus model series; more detailed models of notable size designed as sculptural pieces. These models are made the same as all circus models using wire, paper mache, plaster, paint and varied adornments including textiles and decorations. All are varnished for longevity.
Approx 48cm length (+ 32cm hanging thread)
Miss La La (part of The Two Butterflies)
Miss La La is one of the pair of circus models based on a Victorian travelling double act: Les Deux Papillons (The Two Butterflies). Her partner is Kaira (seen separately) and each can be bought solo or together as the performing duo.
Miss La La (born Anna Albertine Olga Brown on April 21 1858 in Prussia) was the daughter of a black German father and white Prussian mother. She started performing circus acts around the age of 9 and continued to develop her significant skills and strength as well as notoriety and mythology, thanks in part to her race and sex.. She was called the Black Venus, La Mulâtresse-Canon, Venus of the Tropics, the Black Pearl. All kinds of exotic stories circulated about her but it wasn’t until 1911 that the world discovered she wasn’t African and none of these stories were true…by which time she had retired from the circus world anyway!
What was true however was that La La was an immensely strong and impressive performer, and nobody had ever seen anything quite like her. She was known for her ‘iron jaw’ act where she would hang from a trapeze and a canon would be suspended from her jaw, which would then fire along with many other great feats. After working together for many year she joined forces in 1883 with Miss Kaira and toured the world as Les Deux Papillons, dazzling sold out theatres in many cities until Kaira tragically died during a show. After that Miss La La worked successfully as a solo performer and then in a troupe with her husband, a handsome contortionist called Emmanuel Woodman. They moved to Brussels in the early 1900s with three daughters and settled there, retiring from show business and managing the opulent entertainment pavilion at the Palais d’Eté. After Emmanuels death in 1915 Olga applied for a visa to USA and left in 1919, at which point the trail of her story runs cold.
A small but significant part of Miss La La’s story is that she was painted by Degas in 1879 while hanging from her mouth in his only circus painting ‘Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando’.
Miss La La is part of the larger circus model series; more detailed models of notable size designed as sculptural pieces. These models are made the same as all circus models using wire, paper mache, plaster, paint and varied adornments including textiles and decorations. All are varnished for longevity.
Approx 48cm length (+ 32cm hanging thread)