“The Greatest of Them All,” ink with gray wash, Edith C. Barry 1964. New York, New York. 14 ½” x 11”.

This ink drawing by Edith Barry is one of her many pieces of art that focuses on the circus. When the Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey Circus came to New York in the early 1960s, Edith Barry used it as the subject of many of her paintings and sketches, including “Leopard,” “Teddy,” “The Greatest of Them All,” and an 6’x8’ screen titled “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

This image, drawn in 1964, depicts an elephant standing on a pedestal, with a performer standing on its head. A clown, a dog, and a circus girl surround the pair, while two attendants wait in the background. In creating her art, Barry studied each figure before placing it on the page. Within the Museum’s Archives, Barry’s studies and preliminary drawings fill two boxes!

Edith Barry was originally trained as an artist at Miss Wheeler’s Preparatory School for Girls in 1904, and later in France in the 1910s, where she studied under American Masters such as Frederick Macmonnies and Frederick Frieseke, both known for their Impressionist artwork.

1984.B.109

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