Almost as good as being there

books:

	• Oudry's Painted Menagerie: Portraits of Exotic Animals in Eighteenth-Century France (J. Paul Getty Museum) Getty Publications, 2007 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Oudry"s Painted Menagerie

Fabulous book! I really enjoyed this book,and I'm so glad I purchased it. It offers a "mind blowing" experience in this genre. The paintings, the drawings all depict with much clarity an area of history I was not familiar with. No longer!
Clara has entered my life with a "bang"! I was never aware of her, and the loyal following is just another example of animal rights. Again the paintings and drawings bring to the casual viewer, much welcome clarity and force. Breathtaking colors, and detail are outstanding. I highly recommend this book!

Almost as good as being there

The book is beautifully done, the descriptions of the restorations and the photos of the oil paintings are amazing. Although I would have loved to see the images in "life size" I could not afford the trip to California for viewing. The book is the next best thing to being there. Rather than just showing the images with titles, the narrative explains so much of the history of the paintings and the restoration.

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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.

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