Exhibition to get under skin of ‘celebrity rhino’
LONG before the advent of Grumpy Cat, Dolly the Sheep, or even Lassie, there was Miss Clara, a female Indian rhinoceros who achieved an unprecedented level of fame during the 18th century.
This autumn she is once again in the spotlight as the leading lady in the latest of the Barber Institute of Fine Art’s ‘object in-focus’ series of exhibitions.
Miss Clara and the Celebrity Beast in Art, 1500-1860 is the UK’s first ever show devoted to Clara and other well-known pachyderms – large thick-skinned mammals – in a period spanning three centuries.
The starting point for the show is the bronze – A Rhinoceros, called Miss Clara – one of the most-loved objects in the Barber’s collection.
The sculpture is believed to be a portrait of a real rhino which had been brought to Rotterdam in 1741 from Bengal by an enterprising retired Dutch East India Company Sea captain, Douwe Mout van der Meer.
She was toured around Europe and made a huge impression, gained celebrity status and was visited by kings, princes, aristocrats and anyone who could pay the entrance fee to see her.
The rhino inspired sculpture and paintings, prints and posters, ceramics, clocks... and even hairstyles.
The Barber Institute’s Director, Nicola Kalinsky, said: “Miss Clara and the Celebrity Beast in Art promises to be both a visually stunning exhibition, but is also a poignant and timely exploration of humankind’s complex but often damaging relationship with the animal kingdom.”
The unique exhibition is at the Barber Institute, at the University of Birmingham campus, in Edgbaston, from Friday, November 12.