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Lot Essay
Rembrandt Bugatti (1884-1916) was born into a famous artistic Milanese family known for exotic style, luxury, and fast cars. His father Carlos was an influential decorative arts designer at the fin de siècle. His older brother Ettore was an automotive engineer and designer who embraced technology with a nod to the Manifesto of Italian Futurism. The eponymous Bugatti race car became an icon of speed in the early
20th century.
By contrast, the melancholic Rembrandt Bugatti, burdened with an over- recognized name, was a modeler of animals. Sensitive and observant, he felt a deep kinship with creatures. This communion with the natural world became the hallmark of his art. Unlike his 19th century French predecessor, Antoine-Louis Barye and the group Les Animaliers, who sculpted dramatic, cortisol-pumped hunting subjects, the young Bugatti expressed empathy, conveying a sense of calm, nuanced portraiture. He appealed to an avant-garde sensibility through his interest in consciousness and inner life of his subjects.
After an enthusiastic reception at the Venice Biennale of 1903, Bugatti moved to Paris where he discovered the menagerie of giraffes, baboons, birds and leopards at the Jardin des Plantes. He also worked for a time at the Royal Zoological Gardens in Antwerp. In the wake of Darwin’s Theory and the discourse on evolution, the public had gained a new awareness of animal treatment in terms of extinction and conservation. Bugatti embraced this ethos everyday as he observed the exotic beasts and birds. Denting and dabbing his clay slab, he modeled directly, imbuing his close-up studies with an emotional life through rhythmic posture and keenly observed innate behavioral gestures.
The present example of Léopard au repose, cast in Paris by Hébrard, circa 1911, is one of twenty-three known examples of the subject.
The musculature is poised and relaxed. The patinated bronze surface ripples and deflects light, creating a subtle sense of alertness. The feline is powerful yet dignified, standing out as one of the most prominent subjects among Bugatti’s œuvre of three-hundred works.
Bugatti’s early bronzes had densely textured surfaces influenced by Rodin but gradually his work became more simplified in form with smoother surfaces. The writer JB Manson observed in 1929, “His technique derives from French Impressionism in its analysis of color, but he expresses solidity, substance and character rather than atmosphere and light”.
Often depicting pairs or groups of both wild and domestic animals, Bugatti alluded to the intimate language of animals with a conscientious absence of fight or flight, perhaps an irony to the impending Great World War. The horrors of this catastrophic period led to his tragic death in 1916 at age thirty-one, ending an exceptional artistic career.
His personal contribution to the long tradition of animal sculpture going back to the Renaissance, endures as a deeply felt celebration of nature. Embodying humility and natural grace, Rembrandt Bugatti’s work seems particularly salient in today’s fragile ecological world and continues to engage audiences in the 21st century.
– Karen Hayward, Independent Art Advisor, Academic Lecturer
20th century.
By contrast, the melancholic Rembrandt Bugatti, burdened with an over- recognized name, was a modeler of animals. Sensitive and observant, he felt a deep kinship with creatures. This communion with the natural world became the hallmark of his art. Unlike his 19th century French predecessor, Antoine-Louis Barye and the group Les Animaliers, who sculpted dramatic, cortisol-pumped hunting subjects, the young Bugatti expressed empathy, conveying a sense of calm, nuanced portraiture. He appealed to an avant-garde sensibility through his interest in consciousness and inner life of his subjects.
After an enthusiastic reception at the Venice Biennale of 1903, Bugatti moved to Paris where he discovered the menagerie of giraffes, baboons, birds and leopards at the Jardin des Plantes. He also worked for a time at the Royal Zoological Gardens in Antwerp. In the wake of Darwin’s Theory and the discourse on evolution, the public had gained a new awareness of animal treatment in terms of extinction and conservation. Bugatti embraced this ethos everyday as he observed the exotic beasts and birds. Denting and dabbing his clay slab, he modeled directly, imbuing his close-up studies with an emotional life through rhythmic posture and keenly observed innate behavioral gestures.
The present example of Léopard au repose, cast in Paris by Hébrard, circa 1911, is one of twenty-three known examples of the subject.
The musculature is poised and relaxed. The patinated bronze surface ripples and deflects light, creating a subtle sense of alertness. The feline is powerful yet dignified, standing out as one of the most prominent subjects among Bugatti’s œuvre of three-hundred works.
Bugatti’s early bronzes had densely textured surfaces influenced by Rodin but gradually his work became more simplified in form with smoother surfaces. The writer JB Manson observed in 1929, “His technique derives from French Impressionism in its analysis of color, but he expresses solidity, substance and character rather than atmosphere and light”.
Often depicting pairs or groups of both wild and domestic animals, Bugatti alluded to the intimate language of animals with a conscientious absence of fight or flight, perhaps an irony to the impending Great World War. The horrors of this catastrophic period led to his tragic death in 1916 at age thirty-one, ending an exceptional artistic career.
His personal contribution to the long tradition of animal sculpture going back to the Renaissance, endures as a deeply felt celebration of nature. Embodying humility and natural grace, Rembrandt Bugatti’s work seems particularly salient in today’s fragile ecological world and continues to engage audiences in the 21st century.
– Karen Hayward, Independent Art Advisor, Academic Lecturer