Two Kangaroos facing each other, Around 1905.
A black patina bronze proof., H. 0.355 m; W. 0.787 m; D. 0.177 m
Signed R. Bugatti and incised 2 with foundry mark AA Hébrard.
Provenance: Private collection, France.
- Jacques Chalom Des Cordes, Véronique Fromanger Des Cordes, Rembrandt Bugatti, Catalogue Raisonné, Paris, 1987, p. 184-185.
- Véronique Fromanger Des Cordes, Rembrandt Bugatti sculpteur : répertoire monographique: une trajectoire foudroyante, Paris, 2009, no. 123, p. 275-276.
An Italian animal sculptor, Rembrandt Bugatti was a son of the interior decorator Carlo Bugatti (1856-1940) and the brother of the famous automobile builder Ettore Bugatti (1881-1947). He began to make sculptures in childhood, encouraged by his godfather the painter Giovanni Segantini, and by the sculptor Paul Troubetzkoy, a family friend.
Living in Paris from 1903, Bugatti signed an exclusive contract with Adrien-Aurélien Hébrard, art foundry and gallery owner. Each year, A. A. Hébrard exhibited Bugatti’s new works in his Parisian gallery. Every five years, he organized a retrospective and presented Rembrandt Bugatti at salons in France and abroad, between Paris, Venice, Milan, Brussels, Berlin, Antwerp and New-York.
Fascinated by the animal world, Rembrandt Bugatti worked at the zoo in the Paris Jardin des Plantes, where he observed the wild animals daily. He recorded their morphology, their poses, behaviours and sounds in Plastiline and plaster. His sculpture derives completely from this direct contact with animals. From the start, he chose freehand modelling, without preparatory sketches, and speed in execution to transcribe his genius into the material.