Rembrandt Bugatti

The son of decorator and architect Carlo Bugatti and younger brother of Ettore, Rembrandt Bugatti began sculpting in childhood, encouraged by Giovanni Segantini and Paul Troubetzkoy. In 1901, he created Ritorno dal pascolo, a scene of four cows being driven by a young peasant. Having settled in Paris in 1903, he was under contract with the publisher and art caster Adrien-Aurélien Hébrard from the following year.

In 1906, Michel L’Hoest, director of Antwerp Zoo, made a studio available to him. Bugatti observed animals at length and, over fifteen years, studied their forms, postures and behaviour, capturing them first in plasticine, then in plaster. He favoured freehand modelling, without reference points or measurements and without preparatory sketches.

In 1908, he presented animal groups — including giraffes, flamingos and bison — at the Salon of the Société nationale des beaux-arts. In 1911, the Hébrard Gallery presented a collection of one hundred animal bronzes in Paris. His sculptural work was the subject of a retrospective at Antwerp Zoo in 1955, followed by one at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 2014. Publications devoted to the artist include the catalogue raisonné by J. Chalom des Cordes and V. Fromanger, published in 1987, and Rembrandt Bugatti, life in sculpture by Edward Horswell, published in 2004 and again in 2016.

Works recorded at auction

Schuler · Lot 3135

Französische Landschaft

Kohle und Kreide auf Papier

Catalogue period : 2024-12-11

Published result : 1600 CHF

Fees not specified in the available data

Estimate : CHF 500–800

View the lot at the auction house ↗

Piguet

Original title: Etude d'un taureau

crayon de graphite sur papier

Original catalogue wording

Etude d'un taureau
crayon de graphite sur papier

Catalogue period : 2024-11-28 — 2024-12-11

Published result : 400 CHF

Fees not specified in the available data

Estimate : CHF 600–800

View the lot at the auction house ↗

Piguet

Etude de veau,

Graphite on paper

Original catalogue wording

Etude de veau,
mine de plomb sur papier

Catalogue period : 2022-03-01 — 2022-03-16

Published result : 1100 CHF

Fees not specified in the available data

Estimate : CHF 200–300

View the lot at the auction house ↗