In March 1899, Lautrec was placed in a sanitorium by friends and family who thought he needed treatment from alcoholism. While there, he drew other patients and incorportated them into circus scenes. Not only were these scenes a way to escape boredom and maintain his drawing abilities, they also served as acts of recollection---he drew the circus to show the doctors that he did have memory.

"With judicious exactitude he transposed the 'Madrid Circus,' with its subdued lunatics and fanatical doctors, into the lively and cruel parody of the human comedy presented in the circus ring."

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