- 80
Nicolas Huet the Younger Paris circa 1770 - 1828
Description
- Nicolas Huet The Younger
- the royal giraffe
- signed and inscribed in gold: =hüet / Portrait de la Girafe / donnée par S.A. le Vice-Roi d'Egypte à S.M. le Roi de France / Envoi fait par les Professeurs Administrateurs du Muséum d'histoire naturelle à Son Altesse le Vice Roi d'Egypte, en signe de gratitude and annotated with a scale: 1/12
- watercolor and gouache and black ink on vellum
Literature
Catalogue Note
As the inscription describes, this giraffe was given by the Viceroy of Egypt to Charles X, King of France; the gift was made in 1825, but the giraffe only arrived in Paris in June 1827, after the most arduous of journeys, and was the first giraffe to be seen in Paris. She was transported by ship, a hole having been cut in the deck to make room for her neck, with an umbrella to protect her head from the rain. Three cows provided the twenty-five gallons of milk she required each day and two antelopes and her handlers, Hassan and Atir, were her travelling companions. A scroll bearing verses from the Koran was placed around her neck to provide spiritual encouragement. The boat arrived in Marseilles on 13 October 1826 and, after a period of quarantine, was greeted by the Préfet of the Bouches-du-Rhöne, Monsieur Villeneuve-Bargemont. The winter was passed in Provence and it was not until 20 May of the next year that the giraffe set off for the capital, on foot but still accompanied by her companions and again protected from the rain, this time by a special mackintosh cape bearing the arms of the King of France and the Viceroy of Egypt. The journey took a month and on her arrival, the giraffe and her party were greeted by the King in front of the Orangerie of Saint-Cloud. Known as the belle enfant des tropiques, this much admired creature resided in the Jardin des Plantes, with her keeper Atir, and managed to survive the French climate for eighteen years until her death in 1845. An exhibition devoted to the giraffe was held at the Musée de l'Ile de France, Sceaux, in 1984. Michael Allin's book Zarafa (London 1998) gives a full and lively account of the whole story and of the personalities involved.
Nicolas Huet was official painter to the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle et de la Ménagerie of the Empress Josephine and he specialized in painting animals and plants. See also the previous lot. Huet made another portrait of the giraffe, with her keeper Atir, seated under a pine tree, which is now in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (see Literature below).