Everything you need to know about Rembrandt Bugatti

Rembrandt Bugatti was named by his uncle — the artist Giovanni Segantini — after the 17th-century Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn. He lived up to the promise of his exceptional moniker, becoming one of the foremost sculptors of his day. So gifted was he that the famous French critic Louis Vauxcelles was moved to write, ‘Here is great art’, on seeing Bugatti’s sculptures at the Venice Biennale in 1909.

Born into a cultured family of high achievers in Milan in 1884, Bugatti grew up without any doubts about his heritage. He was the grandson of the Italian architect Giovanni Luigi Bugatti and the son of the talented furniture designer Carlo Bugatti. Home was socially rich, with parties at which composer Giacomo Puccini or sculptor Ercole Rosa might make an appearance.

The plan was for Bugatti’s older brother, the brilliant and charismatic Ettore, to be the artist, while the shy and awkward Rembrandt would be an engineer. That all changed when Carlo discovered a beautiful clay model of a peasant leading three cows, which his younger son had sculpted from memory.

Ettore was duly despatched to a firm of bicycle manufacturers, and Rembrandt to the society sculptor Prince Paul Troubetzkoy, celebrated for his rapid and spontaneous style. The Italian-born Russian prince encouraged Bugatti to study his subject closely before committing his impressions to clay.

Many years later, Ettore recalled of that time, ‘There are two types of artists: those who are born artists… My brother was one of them. The other type, to which I belong, are those who try and create art but are not as gifted... One day they should wake up and realise that they ought to do something else.’

Photographs of Bugatti reveal a tall, serious young man with a thin nose and mouth which seem to accentuate his long face. Described as a solitary boy, he was known to be warm and humorous with close friends. He was nicknamed ‘the Americano’ for his snappy dressing, and he once admitted that he liked to wear a new suit when he started a new sculpture. However, as the years passed, the artist became more withdrawn, often disappearing for days on end, and suffering from prolonged bouts of depression.

As the Belle Epoque segued into modernism, and the artists in the cafés of Montmartre thrummed to the tune of Futurism and Cubism, Rembrandt quietly turned his back on the avant-garde and went to the zoo.

Pieces by artists known as ‘animaliers’ had been popular, predominantly in France, from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. Parisian sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye is widely considered the father of the movement, and counted King Louis Philippe I among his patrons. Bugatti’s career is often said to have represented the animalier’s final hurrah.

The range of animals sculpted by Bugatti was extensive. From panthers to flamingos, pelicans to jaguars, he sought to convey the essence of the individual animal rather than an ideal. As one critic observed, ‘He saw the soul rather than the skeleton.’

Bugatti was always deeply affected by cruelty to animals, and he conveyed this pathos in sculptures such as those of pit ponies standing on the quayside in Antwerp, heads bowed, waiting to be taken to the slaughterhouse.

It was the invention of a revolutionary new wax-and-oil-based modelling clay that enabled the artist to create such expressive sculptures. Unlike plaster, which hardens quickly, plasticine is very malleable and does not dry. Working in this material gave Bugatti time to observe his subject and focus on its particular characteristics rather than simply the form. His reproductions were so uncanny that zookeepers were able to identify which individual animal the artist had based his sculpture on.

In 1907, Bugatti was invited to the Royal Zoological Gardens in Antwerp. As one of the most important ports in Europe, Antwerp was a conduit for exotic species from Africa and Asia. Bugatti would watch the ships unload zebras, tigers and elephants onto the quayside, where they would be sold to collectors. The zoo often had first pick, taking consignments of rare and unusual creatures from all over the world. One friend joked that Bugatti had known ‘more animals than Noah’.

With the outbreak of the First World War, Bugatti’s life was transformed irrevocably. The art market collapsed, and Bugatti volunteered as a stretcher bearer for the Red Cross, subsequently contracting tuberculosis at the military hospital in Antwerp. He was traumatised to learn that many of the animals he had sculpted and grown to love in Antwerp Zoo had been put down due to a scarcity of food. In January 1916, he took his own life. ‘It is impossible to express how much his absence upsets me,’ wrote Ettore. ‘I did not know such unhappiness could exist.’

If Bugatti’s career was short, it was also expansive. In just over a decade, the prolific artist had experimented with Impressionism, Expressionism and Futurism. In the last years of his life, his style had simplified, suggesting the influence of Cubism. Works such as The Hamadryas Baboon (1910) and A Tiger Toying with a Snake (1915) also hinted at Assyrian influences.

In the years after his death, Bugatti was overshadowed by his more famous brother, the celebrated automobile manufacturer who specialised in luxury and racing cars. One of Ettore’s most ostentatious designs was the Bugatti Royale, a car with a value ‘beyond price’, created for rajahs and emperors. A Bugatti Type 41 ‘Kellner Coach’ Royale was sold at Christie’s in 1987 for £5,500,000, a world record at the time. Ettore used a version of his brother’s most famous sculpture, a rearing elephant, as its mascot.

In 1947, the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp instituted the Bugatti Prize for Sculpture, ‘in memory of the greatest animalier sculptor’.

Rembrandt Bugatti, récit d’un passionné — Collection André Antolini is offered in Art Moderne on 24 October 2025 at Christie’s in Paris. The pre-sale view takes place from 17 to 24 October