Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando (Francisca and Angelina Wartenberg)

When the Cirque Fernando opened in the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris in 1875, the Impressionists, including Pierre-Auguste Renoir, quickly became frequent visitors. Here, Renoir featured 17-year-old Francisca Wartenberg (left) and her sister, 14-year-old Angelina (right), members of an itinerant German acrobatic troupe. Although Renoir painted the girls in the natural light of his studio rather than onsite at the circus, he posed them as if they were taking their bows after a performance, gathering up the tissue-wrapped oranges tossed to them as tributes by members of the audience.