Rembrandt Bugatti

Galerie A.A. Hébrard, Paris
Wildenstein & Co., New York & Paris
Private Collection (acquired from the above in 1986)
Sladmore Gallery, London (acquired from the above)
Acquired from the above in 1999

Paris, Galerie A.A. Hébrard, 1907
Belgium, Salon de Liège, Collection A.A. Hébrard, 1909
Lausanne, Galerie Paul Vallotton, Rembrandt Bugatti, sculpteur animalier, 1965

Henry Hawley, Véronique Fromanger & Michey Mishne, Bugatti (exhibition catalogue), Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999, illustrated p. 81
Véronqiue Fromanger, Rembrandt Bugatti Sculpteur, Répertoire Monographique, Paris, 2009, no. 171, illustrated in color p. 290

Very lovely dark brown patina. A few disturbances to the patina on the figure's forearms, otherwise fine. This work is in very good condition.
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Bugatti produced in his career a number of extraordinary sculptures including his famous depictions of highly unusual and exotic creatures such as lions and leopards, establishing himself as the preeminent animalier of the twentieth century. However, casts of beautiful women such as Femme nue assise, les mains croisées sur la poitrine form an important part of his artistic output, representing his brief focus on depicting human subjects. Bugatti turned to A. A. Hébrard to cast his work in bronze, the same foundry responsible for casting Degas' wax sculptures of ballerinas in the 1920s, gaining extreme proficiency in rendering the suppleness and nuanced contours of the female body in the medium of bronze. According to Edward Horswell, Bugatti's contract with the Hébrard foundry "was principally to make animal pieces, so the artist's nudes may have been made primarily for his own satisfaction, as well as possibly on commission. His most intense period of figurative work around 1907 led to a deepening of the psychological dimension in his animal pieces" (Edward Horswell, Rembrandt Bugatti, Life in Sculpture, London, 2004, p. 136).

Displaying a deep understanding of characterization and a sinuously modeled surface, Femme nue assise, les mains croisées sur la poitrine reveals the influence of Bugatti's friend and mentor, the sculptor Prince Paolo Troubetzkoy, who was in turn most influenced by the art of Auguste Rodin and Medardo Rosso. The present bronze is imbued with a powerful sense of presence and physicality; the considered and often impressionistic surfaces of many of his earlier works here gives way to an increasingly dynamic aesthetic, further highlighted by some of his own thumb marks in the making of the sculpture’s base, providing a stark contrast to the polished and smooth surface of the figure itself. Bugatti skilfully captures the elegance of his subject, creating a virtuosic object that provides lasting testament to his mastery in the field of sculpture.