The Origins of the World: The Invention of Nature in the Nineteenth Century

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Placed in the center of the main hall, overlooking the crowd from her pedestal, she sees visitors rush towards the entrance of the exhibition, sometimes without as much as a glance at her. We might expect that a stuffed elephant in the middle of an art museum would be surprising, but perhaps with her ochre-grey coat, Parkie blends in with the colors of the Musée d’Orsay. This two-and-a-half-century-old Asian elephant has been specially moved, for the first time since 1798, from her home at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle to join the collections of the famous Parisian museum for the spring. Has the animal become a work of art among others? Looking more closely, there is no question that Parkie is not only different from the other works in the museum, but also different from a live elephant: with her wrinkled and rough skin, bristled with hairs, Parkie still gives off the characteristic and slightly disturbing effect of taxidermy, and she is rigid, her weight evenly distributed on her four feet, without any movement, her eyes fixed. The idea of life seems to emanate more from some of the marble and bronze sculptures filling the great nave than from Parkie. Is she more a part of culture or nature?