United Kingdom Exhibition - Miss Clara and the Celebrity Beast in Art, 1500-1860

[Crowthorne]

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham currently have an exhibit about Clara, the famous Indian Rhinoceros that was taken around Europe in the 18th Century, and achieved celebrity status!

Miss Clara and the Celebrity Beast in Art, 1500 - 1860 - The Barber Institute of Fine Arts

The exhibition runs until 27th February 2022. It looks at the story of Clara and her fame, along with the emergence of zoos and menageries, other famous animals (inc. Jumbo, Chunee and Obaysch), animal capture, colonialism and empire.

For the book collectors there is an exhibition catalogue.

I only heard about the exhibit when the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge shared an image of a clock from their collections which is part of the exhibition: Log into Facebook

There is also a 2004 book about Clara: Clara's Grand Tour: Travels with a Rhinoceros in Eighteenth-Century Europe by Glynis Ridley

 

[Daniel Funk]

It's nice to hear about an exhibit about a famous zoo animals as well telling about the history of zoos in general.

 

[Tim May]

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham currently have an exhibit about Clara, the famous Indian Rhinoceros that was taken around Europe in the 18th Century, and achieved celebrity....

For the book collectors there is an exhibition catalogue.

Many thanks for bringing this interesting exhibition to my attention.

Regrettably, I'll doubt I'll see the exhibition as I don't want the long train journey to Birmingham during the pandemic but I have ordered a copy of the exhibition catalogue.

 

[Tim May]

[QUOTE="....but I have ordered a copy of the exhibition catalogue.[/QUOTE]
My copy of the exhibition catalogue has just been delivered and I'm very pleased with it.

It's an attractively illustrated publication, inevitably most of the pictures are familiar from other books but it's well worth purchasing; thoroughly recommended.

(As expected, most of the images are of Indian rhinos but other species feature too including a number of pictures of London Zoo's first hippopotamus "Obaysch".)