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Lot Essay
This magnificent 1908 cast of the Lion of the Atlas Mountains or Lion of Africa, clearly demonstrates Rembrandt Bugatti's exceptional skills in creating convincing and compelling interpretations of his chosen subjects. With its magnificent and characteristically thick dark mane, Bugatti’s Atlas lion always appears majestic whether it proudly parades such as in the present work, or whether it is caught red-handed devouring its prey as in another representation by Rembrandt, in Lion couché dévorant (R.M., no. 217). The Lion of the Atlas mountains (also known as the lion of Barbary) used to populate predominantly areas of North Africa, until it became extinct in the first quarter of the 20th century – the last one having been killed in Morocco in 1922. These lions used to live in prides throughout the year, contrary to man’s myth of the Atlas lion being a solitary animal.
The animal kingdom was his source of inspiration and his interpretations of countless animal subjects reveal his touching affinity with them. But this sculpture also commands attention for a bold formal language that reflects the dominant avant-garde tendencies of his era. Bugatti's work was always highly individual and distinctive; by the time he modelled this majestic lion, his style had fully matured and in this subject we can see clearly the results of a significant evolution within his work - from the naturalism of the 19th century animaliers, to whom he had emerged as the natural successor, and towards a formal approach that drew, in the first decade of the new century, on the new tendencies towards abstraction. Bugatti's work moved on from the impressionistic towards the resolutely modern, as evidenced in the distillation of his subjects into more rationalised forms - in this case more planar and cubistic. Within the present lot, the lion's mane notably provides a block form that Bugatti has exploited with virtuosity in the strongly stylised manner that characterised a few key works from around this date that marked emphatically his progression from the freer impasto of his earlier style. Bugatti modelled countless varieties of animal, from elephants to pelicans, anteaters to giraffes. But among his favoured subjects were the big cats whose grace and majesty he captured with such brilliance. He analysed shrewdly and with sensitivity the character and the characteristic gestures of these splendid beasts, in motion or in repose. Bugatti created several individual figures of lions, such as the present example, and of lionesses, but he also explored the potential of sculpting them together. By 1908 when the present sculpture was conceived and cast in Antwerp, Bugatti already perfectly mastered modelling lions, as seen in his first sculptures realized at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris in 1903-1904. He created several individual figures of lions and lionesses, such as Lionne jouant avec une boule (R.M., no. 44) and Lionne couchée bâillant (R.M., no. 47), but also explored the potential of sculpting them together such as Lion et lionne couchés l’un contre l’autre (R.M., no. 48) and Lion et lionne dévorant (R.M., no. 45). When Bugatti moved to Antwerp in 1907 and discovered the city’s zoo, he almost immediately befriended the lion-keeper, Frans Franckx, who gave him direct access to the lions’ cages where Bugatti could even pet the lion-cubs, as seen in the present photograph. Antwerp Zoo encouraged artists, let them set up their easels wherever they liked, and even had a studio on the grounds. Furthermore, the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp offered him the chance to observe closely a wide array of exotic animals from Belgian colonies in Africa and Asia, providing him with endless inspiration as a master of animal sculpture.
Rembrandt Bugatti's short but brilliant career established his high reputation as a masterful sculptor who combined an extraordinary empathy with his subject matter and a remarkable aesthetic intuition. Born in 1885, he developed his manual skills working with metals in the Milan atelier of his highly creative father, Carlo, who became celebrated particularly for his exotic furniture covered in vellum and ornamented with elaborate metal inlays and applications. Rembrandt had no formal art school training, but found his vocation and developed his own direction at an early age. He started to exhibit in the Paris Salons in 1904 and in that year established his working relationship with Hébrard as founder and gallery. The present sculpture of the Lion of the Atlas Mountains was cast and sold by Adrien-Aurélien Hébrard in 1908, when Bugatti had just turned 24 years old. Only two other examples were cast in the same edition and sold directly to private collectors.
The animal kingdom was his source of inspiration and his interpretations of countless animal subjects reveal his touching affinity with them. But this sculpture also commands attention for a bold formal language that reflects the dominant avant-garde tendencies of his era. Bugatti's work was always highly individual and distinctive; by the time he modelled this majestic lion, his style had fully matured and in this subject we can see clearly the results of a significant evolution within his work - from the naturalism of the 19th century animaliers, to whom he had emerged as the natural successor, and towards a formal approach that drew, in the first decade of the new century, on the new tendencies towards abstraction. Bugatti's work moved on from the impressionistic towards the resolutely modern, as evidenced in the distillation of his subjects into more rationalised forms - in this case more planar and cubistic. Within the present lot, the lion's mane notably provides a block form that Bugatti has exploited with virtuosity in the strongly stylised manner that characterised a few key works from around this date that marked emphatically his progression from the freer impasto of his earlier style. Bugatti modelled countless varieties of animal, from elephants to pelicans, anteaters to giraffes. But among his favoured subjects were the big cats whose grace and majesty he captured with such brilliance. He analysed shrewdly and with sensitivity the character and the characteristic gestures of these splendid beasts, in motion or in repose. Bugatti created several individual figures of lions, such as the present example, and of lionesses, but he also explored the potential of sculpting them together. By 1908 when the present sculpture was conceived and cast in Antwerp, Bugatti already perfectly mastered modelling lions, as seen in his first sculptures realized at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris in 1903-1904. He created several individual figures of lions and lionesses, such as Lionne jouant avec une boule (R.M., no. 44) and Lionne couchée bâillant (R.M., no. 47), but also explored the potential of sculpting them together such as Lion et lionne couchés l’un contre l’autre (R.M., no. 48) and Lion et lionne dévorant (R.M., no. 45). When Bugatti moved to Antwerp in 1907 and discovered the city’s zoo, he almost immediately befriended the lion-keeper, Frans Franckx, who gave him direct access to the lions’ cages where Bugatti could even pet the lion-cubs, as seen in the present photograph. Antwerp Zoo encouraged artists, let them set up their easels wherever they liked, and even had a studio on the grounds. Furthermore, the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp offered him the chance to observe closely a wide array of exotic animals from Belgian colonies in Africa and Asia, providing him with endless inspiration as a master of animal sculpture.
Rembrandt Bugatti's short but brilliant career established his high reputation as a masterful sculptor who combined an extraordinary empathy with his subject matter and a remarkable aesthetic intuition. Born in 1885, he developed his manual skills working with metals in the Milan atelier of his highly creative father, Carlo, who became celebrated particularly for his exotic furniture covered in vellum and ornamented with elaborate metal inlays and applications. Rembrandt had no formal art school training, but found his vocation and developed his own direction at an early age. He started to exhibit in the Paris Salons in 1904 and in that year established his working relationship with Hébrard as founder and gallery. The present sculpture of the Lion of the Atlas Mountains was cast and sold by Adrien-Aurélien Hébrard in 1908, when Bugatti had just turned 24 years old. Only two other examples were cast in the same edition and sold directly to private collectors.