VERSO
Label, Sotheby’s, London, England

Bugatti biographer Edward Horswell wrote, “People often describe Bugatti as an ‘animal sculptor’ rather than just a ‘sculptor’ or even a ‘sculptor of the human form’ – although he was equally adept at this when he chose to be. I prefer to think of him instead as a ‘portrait sculptor,’ and this I feel is one of the keys to his original approach to and success at the sculpture of animals. The nineteenth-century sculptors who made up ‘Les Animaliers’, shown at the Sladmore [Gallery] when it first opened, were the pioneers of their day, but they sculpted generic animals formed from an amalgamation of images seen, specimens observed and … carcasses dissected. Bugatti’s approach to animals was entirely different, however: right from the start he saw each animal as an individual, and thus each sculpture is an intimate portrait of the particular animal that was before him. The fact that most of his early sculptures depict family pets undoubtedly helped, but this vivid portrayal of what was before him is evident throughout his oeuvre – a leopard with a kink in its tail, for example, or an antelope with its leg in plaster. He never chooses to gloss over these quirks, but uses them to make his subjects uncannily lifelike.

“Many sculptors have succeeded in capturing a range of emotions in models with whom they can converse. Bugatti’s uniqueness lay in extending this capacity to his mute subjects. Perhaps some people’s unease with this unusual skill has encouraged them to hint at his awkwardness with his own family and friends, and much has been written about him struggling with human relationships. He once even wrote to his brother, ‘the animals are my true friends’, and he was certainly equally at home with them. Domesticated and captive animals are both essentially dependent on us for their very survival – much like a newborn baby – and Bugatti was aware of the strong bond that exists between master or keeper and their charge.”

PROVENANCE
Sotheby’s, London, England, 1996
Private collection, Wyoming

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