DescriptionWatercolour and pen and ink, originally for ‘This is London’ (1959). The word ‘circus’ derives from the Latin word meaning ‘circle’. Contemporaneously the word more commonly denotes the circus of clowns and jugglers and trapeze artists (which in fact is not surprising since the circus of clowns is so named for its circular ring and the ringmaster who presides). But these two associations, ‘circle’ and ‘circus’, are both appropriate for this image. There’s the circle created by the space, but there’s a circus-like experience created by the brightness of lights, the whirl of the red London buses; and is it too fanciful to think of Anteros atop the cascading fountain as ringmaster extraordinaire?
