Camelopard - a present from the Pacha of Egypt to the King - at Malta on its way to England

Charles Frederick de Brocktorff (1775–1850)
Camelopard - a present from the Pacha of Egypt to the King - at Malta on its way to England
signed and dated 'C.F. de Brocktorff. / 1827.' (lower right), inscribed as titled in the painted margins (lower centre)
pencil and watercolour heightened with gold paint and gum arabic on paper
14¹⁄₂ x 11in. (36.8 x 27.9cm.)
Brocktorff records the giraffe gifted to George IV by Mohammed Ali, the viceroy of Eygpt, en route from Cairo to London in 1826-27. The giraffe - one of three presented by the viceroy to Britain, France and Austria - travelled to Malta by ship and overwintered there with its two Egyptian keepers before embarking on the Penelope Malta for England in May 1827. The giraffe would be the first to be seen in England and resulted in an outbreak of 'giraffemania' - it was most famously painted by Agasse for the King. The most poorly of the three specimens (caricaturists and satirists quickly associated the sickly giraffe with the ailing King), it had a short career in the King's menagerie at Windsor Great Park before dying in October 1829. The artist, Charles Frederick de Brockktorff, was a veteran of the Elector of Hanover's army who served in the Napoleonic wars. He moved to Malta in 1810, set up his studio in Valletta, and painted Maltese scenery for visitors to the islands. The artist titles the animal 'Camelopard', from its Roman name (which seems to have understood the animal to be a cross between a camel and leopard) and from which its species name Giraffa camelopardalis derives.

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