Title: Oudry's Painted Menagerie: Portraits of Exotic Animals in Eighteenth-Century France (J. Paul Getty Museum)
Author: Contributor-Colin Bailey; Contributor-Marina Belozerskaya; Contributor-Charissa Bremer-David; Contributor-Christoph Frank; Contributor-Christine Giviskos; Contributor-Mark Leonard; Editor-Mary Morton
Publisher: Getty Publications
Copyright Date: 2007-06-25
ISBN: 0892368896
Type: Paperback
Book condition: Very Good +
Jacket condition: None as issued

Notes: New paperback book, purchased directly from publisher. Book sustained some shipping damage to cover, including some long scratches on front, some smaller and lighter scratches front back, lines of surface rubbing across front, and edge bumps. Text is fine. Great value on a new, though cosmetically flawed, copy. NO publisher's/remainder mark.

About the Book

This beautiful volume--published to coincide with an exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum to be held from May 1 to September 2, 2007--is the first to focus on the series of life-size portraits painted by the eighteenth-century artist Jean-Baptiste Oudry of the animals in Louis XV's royal menagerie at Versailles. A tiger, a lion, a leopard, and, most impressive of all, the famous rhinoceros known as Clara joined a group of other exotic animals in Oudry's "painted menagerie," which was purchased in 1750 by his German patron, the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

The book's insightful essays situate this suite of paintings within the context of Oudry's career; discuss Oudry's remarkable drawings of animals; and present a fascinating history of menageries and of the phenomenon known as "Claramania"--when the real rhinoceros, Clara, traveled through Europe and caused a public sensation.

Cover price: $39.95