The Show (La Parade)

Nicolas Antoine Taunay · 1784–87

Medium

Oil on panel

Original size

37.5 × 43.7 cm (14 3/4 × 17 3/16 in.); Framed: 60.4 × 53.4 × 7.7 cm (23 3/4 × 21 × 3 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Neoclassicism

*La Parade* captures the lively spectacle of an 18th-century Parisian fairground, where costumed performers entertain a crowd from a raised booth stage to coax them inside the theatre. Nicolas Antoine Taunay was a prominent French painter working in the final years of the Ancien Régime, recognised as a member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. Painted on panel, the work showcases his gift for small-scale figure painting — each character rendered with precise detail and expressive personality despite the intimate format. The scene belongs to a tradition of French genre painting that documented popular urban life, finding dignity and energy in everyday spectacle rather than grand historical subjects. The street performance depicted — known as a *parade* — was a recognised theatrical form unique to French fair culture, performed on open platforms outside booth theatres at fairs like Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent to draw paying audiences inside. A skilled hand-painted oil reproduction on canvas brings this richly layered scene back to life with the warmth and texture that only oil paint can deliver, allowing you to appreciate Taunay's meticulous brushwork and the glowing atmosphere of pre-Revolutionary Paris in a format suited to any wall.