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Article: Wildlife Conservation
- Article from:
- Artforum
- Article date:
- May 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Artforum Inc. May 2007. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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MEREDITH MARTIN ON JEAN-BAPTISTE OUDRY AT THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM, LOS ANGELES
BEFORE BARBARO or Dolly the cloned sheep, there was Clara, an Indian rhinoceros who reigned as the biggest celebrity animal in mid-eightcenth-century Europe. Escorted by her Dutch owner, Clara toured the continent between 1741 and 1758, enchanting kings, commoners, and artists alike due to her exotic pedigree, surprisingly docile nature, and ability to slake an Enlightenment thirst for firsthand observation, in this case of an animal that had not been seen in Europe in nearly two hundred years.
During a I 749 engagement at Paris's Saint Germain fair, an annual Dionysian event improbably held during Lent, Clara ...