John Steuart Curry, “The Missed Leap”, Lithograph on Cream Wove Paper, 1934, Smithsonian American Art Museum
John Steuart Curry traveled with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for months in 1932, making studies for later paintings and prints. A trapeze artist misses her partner’s outstretched hand in the lithograph “Missed Leap,” and while Curry has fringed a lower corner with a net, she appears to be dropping straight toward a starred target on the floor below.