It was still a favorite rendez-vous for the Parisian artistic elite - and still attracted many artists, who were always welcome around the ring.ĭuring World War II and the German Occupation of France, the lease of the Cirque Medrano, which, since Fernando's bankruptcy, included the land as well as the walls, was put for sale. Bonten's management was sound, if not overly imaginative (he let the Fratellinis go to his main competition, Paris's Cirque d'Hiver, in 1924), and Cirque Medrano continued to thrive.
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When Berthe Medrano died of cancer in 1920, Rodolphe Bonten took over the full management of the circus, but the lease actually reverted to Jérôme Medrano, who was only thirteen. Jérôme was given a formal education in elite schools that had not much to do with the circus.ĭuring World War I, Bonten hired a trio of clowns, the Fratellinis, who soon became the Idols of Paris and ensured Medrano's financial success. To ensure her son's future, Berthe, whose health was deteriorating, remarried with Rodolphe Bonten. Gerónimo and Berthe had a son, Jérôme Medrano (1907-1998), who was five years old when his father died. Then, his wife, Berthe (née Perrin,1876-1920), took over the circus, and gave the artistic management to Rodolphe Bonten, a former acrobat. Medrano managed the circus until his death in 1912. It remained a meeting point for artists: Picasso, Braque, Kees van Dongen were regulars. Gerónimo Medrano successfully revived the circus of the Boulevard de Rochechouart. In the following December, Gerónimo Medrano bought back Fernando's lease, and renamed the circus Cirque Medrano.Ĭirque Medrano's program cover by Cândido de Faria (c.1900) He eventually led the circus to bankruptcy in October 1897. Although Louis's artistic direction proved quite successful, notably with popular revues written for his star clown, Gerónimo Medrano (1849-1912), known as "Boum-Boum," his financial management of the family's enterprise was often erratic.
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Fernando, who oversaw the box office, decided to let the painters work freely in the circus during rehearsals and watch the performances free of charge - a tradition that will remain under the subsequent management of Gerónimo Medrano.įernando Beert eventually gave the management of his circus to his stepson, Louis, known as Louis Fernando (1851-?). They brought in their wake members of the Parisian "bohème", writers, journalists, actors, who generated publicity for the circus.
Designed by the architect Gustave Gridaine, the new Cirque Fernando opened on June 25, 1875.īecause of its proximity to Montmartre, the circus attracted many artists ( Renoir, Degas, Lautrec, among many others), who came to sketch the performers in action, which sometimes resulted in full paintings. He therefore managed to obtain a thirty-year lease on his piece of land to build a permanent circus. He had considerable success there, which went far beyond the context of the fair. Fernando thus went on to search for a suitable empty lot nearby, and found it on the Boulevard de Rochechouart, between the rue des Martyrs and the present rue Viollet-le-Duc. The following year, he came to Paris to perform at the Fête de Montmartre, but the traditional fairgrounds for this annual fair were on the very spot on which the Church of the Sacré-Cœur was being built. Īn acrobat and equestrian, Fernando started his Cirque Fernando in Vierzon, France, in 1872. Note the stylish audience that attended circus performances in 19th-century Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec's oil on canvas painting, Ecuyère au Cirque Fernando, 1887–88, shows Louis Fernando leading the horse of an equestrienne.