Famille Du Saltimbanque L Enfant Blesse Essay

Alone, Together
La Famille Du Saltimbanque L’Enfant Blesse, by Gustave Doré, is at first a dark and complicated painting to examine. However, it is ultimately a meaningful, and perhaps uplifting, work to explore, containing both clear and subtle themes. This painting not only presents a family stricken by tragedy and exposes the harsh reality of their mode of life and work, but also manages, through this darkness, to speak deeply of the compassion and kinship that friends, no matter how different, bestow upon each other in times of suffering.
The family of the child acrobat has been dealt one of the most devastating blows that can occur within a family, the loss of a child. Blood streams heavily from the wound on the child’s young head, and

The child acrobat was likely forced into his work in order to help sustain his family. But these harsh realities are not often seen or even considered by the masses who come to watch the dangerous performances. As performers, it is the job of the family to create a fun and appealing atmosphere for the circus’s patrons, and their appearance fully reflects this. For example, the mother, most likely a dancer, as suggested by the slipper that peaks out from under her clothes, is donned in a gaudy blue robe with gold trim, wears gold earrings and a gold armlet, and even has a crown on her head. The father looks like he could be a strange mythical creature. He is dressed in a flashy bronze tunic and tights, wears a pointed headdress on his head that resembles a set of horns, and his face is painted bizarrely. One might even think, upon first glance, that the subjects of this painting are indeed whimsical creatures of the artist’s imagination. But this work is most certainly one of realism, and it is one that portrays the genuine—though often overlooked—bereavement of a different, but very human,