Art and the Circus

At the moment, I'm really into the idea of doing a sort of abstract set--scaffolding with little decoration and a couple of circus wagon flats--so that the show could be in any time and place, like a real circus travels.  This is slightly out of character, since I'm usually not into abstract art.  But some of my favorite artists are Impressionist or post-Impressionist, and so rather than calling my ideas for the set 'abstract', I'm going to say 'impressionistic'.
Regardless, I've found that a lot of my favorite artists were also inspired by the circus.  Here are some of my favorite works!

Degas:

Miss La La in Circus Fernando

Rider at the Circus Fernando

 Lautrec:

Acrobats at the Circus

At the Circus Dressage

Tissot:

Women of Paris: The Circus Lover

Picasso:

Au Cirque

Circus Family

Seated Harlequin

Chagall:

The Circus Horse

Seurat:

The Circus

Here are a few more--not necessarily by artists I already liked, but that popped up when I was looking for the others and struck me.

Circus Boy 1872, Antonio Mancini

Circus Procession, Victor Anderson

Untitled [circus performers], Franze Kline