King Louis XV’s rhinoceros was the star of the court of Versailles. Fed on a diet of bread, its tough hide was regularly massaged with oil. But it proved not an easy pet to keep and unfortunately killed two people who entered its enclosure.
Now, the magnificent beast, since stuffed and preserved, has left Paris for the first time since it arrived in 1770, travelling to London to take up a temporary place under the spotlight at the Science Museum in London.
“We are very excited to see it here,” said curator Glyn Morgan this weekend. “It looks fantastic. The photographs really did not do justice to just how impressive and characterful it is. The skin is almost jet black.”
The animal is an enormous bit of surviving evidence of a period of so-called “rhinomania” that swept Europe at the end of the 18th century, with clocks, decorations and occasionally even wigs all styled to feature the shape of the animal.
One thing that hosting the rhino has already made clear to Morgan is that it would never be possible for a human to ride it without the sort of specially constructed saddle controversially invented for the new Gladiator II film. “The rhino’s back is far too wide, and it would not be advisable to try, in any case,” he said.
The French king’s rhino, which eventually died a violent death of its own, is to be one of the main attractions at the museum’s major new show, Versailles: Science and Splendour, which opens next week. The exhibition will look at all the animals collected from around the world, and subsequently studied, that were held at the zoo at Versailles, each brought over to France to advertise the king’s power and global reach.
“It is significant that it’s an Indian rhino, because that speaks to the geopolitical expression of Louis XV’s power,” said Morgan. “But then, as it was studied by scientists, it became incredibly important to our growing zoological knowledge.”
The male rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) lived alone in a fenced pen in the Royal Ménagerie, with a little pool, and soon became one of the most famous residents of the French capital. A gift from the French governor of Chandernagore, Jean-Baptiste Chevalier, it had been conveyed over on a boat, travelling for 10 months before arriving at Versailles. Leaving Calcutta, West Bengal on 22 December 1769, it arrived in Lorient, Brittany on 11 June 1770.
“The sea voyage was long because there was no Suez canal then, but the journey across France was just as bad,” said Morgan. There was no suitable transportation for such a big beast at the port of Lorient, so it remained there for several weeks, while a vehicle was built that could transport it the 450km east to Versailles.
“It was one of many animals in the menagerie, and we will highlight that it was not kept in conditions that can compare even to a modern zoo,” said Morgan. “It was unhealthy, but must have had moments of complete passivity, because it was possible to massage.”
The animal stayed at Versailles for 22 years, passing down into the ownership of the king’s grandson, Louis XVI, until it was killed by a sabre thrust in 1793, during the Reign of Terror after the French Revolution.
The rhino then became the subject of the earliest known experiment in taxidermy at such scale. Two eminent taxidermists, Jean-Claude Mertrud and Félix Vicq d’Azyr, worked together to dissect and stuff it. “It looks oddly barrel-chested because the exterior shape was supported with wooden hoops and the legs are too straight due to the beams inside,” said Morgan. The rhino then went on display at the Grande Galerie de l’Evolution in the Jardin des Plantes, while its skeleton was sent to the neighbouring Galerie de Paléontologie et d’Anatomie comparée, both parts of Paris’s Natural History Museum.
For 200 years, the rhino wore a mismatched horn. A 19th-century naturalist had given it a much larger one in an effort to accentuate its regal status. “It was probably one that came from an African rhino,” said Morgan. “But it now has a replica of the right one and has been a mainstay of the Paris museum.
“It’s never been on loan before, except to go back to Versailles, briefly, a decade ago for an exhibition. The loan of such a fragile, significant exhibit is testament to the strength of the relationship we have built up.”
