The new collection at Hermes goes beyond just horses, featuring monkeys, rabbits and a series of cool cats in the house (quite literally).

Last night, these included not only ladies in glittery dresses and dapper men, art mavens and society matrons, but also a vigilant leopard watching over the Maharaja’s Apartment at Udaipur City Palace.

He was part of American-photographer Karen Knorr’s “Transmigrations” exhibit, which opens at the Hermes gallery today, lined with blown-up prints of sumptuous interiors (museums in Chantilly, havelis in Rajasthan) invaded by animals and birds: here, antelopes graze on glossy wooden floors under the crystal chandelier at Chateau Chambor; a hump-backed cow meditates in peeling, sky-blue rooms and the serenity of Musee Carnavalet is shattered by a trio of flapping pigeons.

Organized by Tasveer Arts, the exhibit combines two series – Fables and India Song, both of which measure the distance and examine the interplay between nature and culture by taking animals out of their natural milieu and inserting them into museums, palaces, castles. And we mean “insert” not just metaphorically – that they have been Photoshopped in is apparent even to an untrained eye, with visible cut-outs and unconvincing drop shadows. In an age when Hi! Blitz magazine can make Neeta Ambani look like a new bride, these photos are surprisingly sloppy.

But that may be the point, another tool Knorr uses to demonstrate the incompatibility of culture and nature, and how far removed our histories, knowledge and social constructs are from the natural world. Or maybe she was just feeling lazy.

Go judge for yourself. And while you’re at it, check out the beige and caramel canvas-and-leather sling briefcase in the men’s section (approximately Rs 1,17,000). Strappingly handsome and lovingly detailed, it is the sexiest beast around.

Getting there: 15 A Horniman Circle, right next to Asiatic Library, Fort.