Clara the Rhinoceros
Rotterdam / Amsterdam: NAI010 Publishers / Rijks Museum, 2023.
ISBN: 9789462087477
Condition: As New
Softcover
208 pp 6 x 8.25 in.
A visual history of the 18th-century rhinoceros and her unusual life as cultural icon and captive creature In 1741 a ship arrived in the Netherlands carrying a miraculous animal that few people in Europe had seen before: a young female rhinoceros from India named Clara. For 17 years, Clara traveled with her owner Douwe Mout through almost every country in Europe. Wherever she appeared, she made a sensation, becoming the most famous rhino in European history. Artists such as Jan Wandelaar, Johann Elias Ridinger, Petrus Camper, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon and Pietro Longhi immortalized her in paintings, drawings, sculptures and medals; she even influenced fashion; and she permanently corrected the false image of a rhinoceros perpetuated by Dürer in his famous 1515 engraving. Based on new research, Gijs van der Ham, a former senior curator at the Rijksmuseum, reconstructs her life, travels and captivity, and unravels her influence on the iconography and knowledge of rhinoceroses. Item #24938
Price: $40.00
