Clara (rhinoceros)

Clara (c. 1738 – 14 April 1758) was a female Indian rhinoceros who became famous during 17 years of touring Europe in the mid-18th century. She arrived in Europe in Rotterdam in 1741, becoming the fifth living rhinoceros to be seen in Europe in modern times since Dürer's Rhinoceros in 1515. She was known as the Dutch rhinoceros and received the name Miss Clara in the German town of Würzburg in August 1748. After tours through towns in the Dutch Republic, the Holy Roman Empire, Switzerland, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, France, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Papal States, Bohemia and Denmark, she died in Lambeth, England.

In 1739, she was drawn and engraved by two English artists. She was then brought to Amsterdam, where Jan Wandelaar made two engravings that were published in 1747. In the subsequent years, the rhinoceros was exhibited in several European cities. In 1748, Johann Elias Ridinger made an etching of her in Augsburg, and Petrus Camper modelled her in clay in Leiden. In 1749, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, drew her in Paris. In 1751, Pietro Longhi painted her in Venice.^[1]