Clara: The Rhinoceros

‘A rhinoceros is coming to your town, a living rhinoceros! Such a wonder beast from distant parts has never been seen here before.’ The news made many European newspapers around 1750. A few years earlier the young rhinoceros, whose name was Clara, had been brought from India to the Netherlands on board a ship of the Dutch East India Company. For seventeen long years she criss-crossed virtually every country in mainland Europe with her owner Douwe Mout. Clara’s appearances caused a sensation with the general public while scientists regarded her as a wonder beast and artists adopted her as their muse, immortalizing her in paintings, drawings and sculptures. In this book, Gijs van der Ham brings the most famous rhinoceros in European history to life.