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

This book tells the fascinating story of the rhinoceros Miss Clara, the most famous animal of the eighteenth century. It accompanies the first ever major loan exhibition devoted to Clara and celebrity pachyderms in the UK and will offer a significant contribution to scholarship on the subject. The latest in the Barber's acclaimed object-in- focus series, Miss Clara focuses on a small bronze sculpture of a rhinoceros, and also considers other celebrity beasts, the emergence of menageries and zoos, and the significance of the capture and captivity of these big beasts within wider academic discussions of colonialism and empire. 'Miss Clara' arrived in Europe from the Dutch East Indies in 1741, brought by a retired Dutch East India Company captain, Douwe Mout van der Meer, who then toured her round Europe (including England) to huge acclaim and excitement. Jungfer Clara (so christened while visiting Wurzburg in 1748) was the first rhino to be seen on mainland Europe since 1579 and the object of great wonder and affection. Her fame generated a massive industry in souvenirs and imagery from life-scale paintings by major masters to cheap popular prints; there were even Clara-inspired clocks and hairstyles. This book will look at the phenomenon of Clara but, unlike previous studies of the subject, will focus primarily on sculptural/3D representations of her, within the context of other celebrity pachyderms represented by artists between the 16th and 19th centuries. Exhibition: The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, UK (12.11.2021 - 27.02.2022). --