Rembrandt Bugatti

Hébrard Collection, Paris
Nico Borsje, Paris
Acquired from the above in July 1976

Mary Harvey, The Bronzes of Rembrandt Bugatti, London, 1979, illustration of another cast p. 56
Philippe Dejean, Carlo-Rembrandt-Ettore-Jean Bugatti, New York, 1982, illustration of another cast p. 192
Véronique Fromanger, Rembrandt Bugatti, sculpteur: répertoire monographique, Paris, 2009, no. 47, illustration of another cast p. 259

Rich reddish brown patina. Surface is clean and beautifully preserved. Work is in excellent condition.
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The present work represents a rather unusual and exotic subject for Bugatti, that of the dromedary, or Arabian camel, at a watering hole. Bugatti carved only four models of camels in his lifetime. He would have seen this animal, indigenous to the Middle East, among those in captivity at the Zoo in Antwerp, where he sculpted an impressive menagerie throughout the decade prior to his death in 1916.

Edward Horswell described one of Bugatti’s similar models, Camels Drinking, saying “Bugatti took impressionist handling to its limit. In this piece, the camels are brilliantly evoked, yet very hard to ‘read’ in detail—their image is lost and found in a flurry of liquid plastilene, frothing almost with the action of the artist’s hand” (Edward Horswell, Rembrandt Bugatti, Life in Sculpture, London, 2004, p. 73).