Gee ( slaps forehead, whirls around in astonishment) I can actually answer this! ( stumbles over something, falls to the ground, groans).

Clowns are in roughly two categories, white-face Joeys and more tramp-like augustes.

Joey comes from Joseph Grimaldi, the immensely popular English clown of the early 19th c. His makeup was a white base with black eyebrows, red lips, and large red triangles on the cheeks that supposedly were to imitate the look of a child who'd been gorging on a jelly tart. In the simple and limited stage lighting of the time, the clear marks on a white background made his facial expressions very clear- an important thing for Grimaldi, who had a very wide range of them. There have since been many variations on joey makeup- clowns are supposed to create their own personal look. But it had nothing to do with African stereotypes.

The joey often became paired with an auguste, also known as He Who Gets Slapped. The auguste was usually ragged, in contrast to the joey, and messed up whatever conceited plan the joey had concocted: the Joey wants to saw a board in two, the auguste manages to stumble around and keep that from happening ( yes, if you are thinking Laurel and Hardy, you're right). A good example of this would be the Swiss auguste Grock, who would be paired with various joeys for a very very long career. You can see him working with one here. Tramp clowns like Otto Griebling and Emmet Kelly dressed as augustes.

Another famous auguste would be Chocolat, in the French team of Footit and Chocolat. George Foottit ( born English) was the joey and acted the part of a spoiled child, Chocolat ( likely born in Cuba) acted as his incompetent servant. Chocolat wore little or no makeup to exaggerate the fact that he was Black, other than possibly highlighted lips. Instead of rags, he wore a pair of white gloves - which made his gestures more clear- and elegant evening attire. He's the subject of more than a few paintings, like this one of him dancing, by Toulouse-Lautrec.

However, it should be mentioned that racist African stereotypes weren't avoided in the theatre. Minstrel shows- white performers with banjos, blackface makeup and clownish antics- appeared right around the death of Grimaldi in 1837, even touring in France in the 1840's. How much minstrel show performers were influenced by circus clowns is a whole other question. American Thomas "Daddy" Rice performed in circuses, and did his popular hit "Jump Jim Crow" as a singing and dancing black-face clown.

John H Towsen: Clowns