Rembrandt Bugatti

Rembrandt Bugatti's career was precocious, but brief: his talent was discovered when he was only 14 years old, but he committed suicide in 1916, at the age of 30. Yet she is rich. He was born into a family of artists. His father, Carlo Bugatti, is the famous furniture designer, his uncle is the painter Giovanni Segantini, his brother Ettore will be the automobile manufacturer. The young Rembrandt learned drawing, modeling and working with wood and metal very early on. One day in 1899, his father and a friend the sculptor Paolo Troubetzkoy, discovered in the workshop a small group in earth representing a peasant leading three cows. It was Rembrandt who modeled it and hid it under a damp cloth ... Stunned by his talent, Troubetzkoy sent him to study art at the Brera Academy in Milan. The installation of his father in Paris in 1904, when he was only 19 years old, allowed him to frequent the menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes: the animals were his models there. Admiringly, the founder AA Hébrard suggested that he publish his animal sculptures in bronze. In 1904, it was the first exhibition at the Hébrard gallery rue Royale. From now on, every year, Rembrandt will show his latest creations there. 1907 is a turning point: the Royal Society of Zoology of Antwerp invites him "in residence". He could freely work at the zoo, the largest in Europe at that time, exhibit his works there and even sell them. He remained there until the war, in difficult living conditions: a modest room, a wet workshop, long stays in the open air to model the animals, made him contract tuberculosis, diagnosed at the end of 1909. In 1910, he exhibited his works in Antwerp, with immense success, and Hébrard won him the Legion of Honor: he was only 26 years old. But depression sets in: “My consolation,” he said, “is the zoological garden where I spend all day.” War breaks out. Unable to be mobilized as a foreigner, he joined the Belgian Red Cross as a stretcher bearer at the zoo. But he is too fragile to bear all this horror: he flees to Paris, settles in Montparnasse and carves a Christ on the cross. On Saturday January 8, 1916, he organized his end. We will find him in his studio, dying, lying on his bed, poisoned by gas. Transported to Laënnec hospital, he breathed his last. His art, made of observation, simplicity and elegance, has never ceased to be successful. With François Pompon, he is the greatest animal keeper of his time. In 1920, a posthumous retrospective of 125 works took place at the Hébrard gallery, in 1947, the Antwerp zoo established a "Bugatti Prize" for animal sculpture and many books and exhibitions were dedicated to him. A large collection of original plasters was donated by his niece, L'Ébé Bugatti, to the Musée d'Orsay. You can also admire his works at the museums of Lyon, Roubaix and Vernon.