Rembrandt Bugatti (1884-1916)

Véronique Fromanger has confirmed the authenticity of this work.

Bugatti spent his days in the Jardin des Plantes, observing animals in the menagerie. Among those he regularly visited was a female African elephant named Rachel. She was one of the favorites of the zoo; Parisians rushed to see the elephant fed between the bars and amaze crowds by balancing on her front legs.
The present sculpture invites comparison with another similar model: the small, dancing elephant (Le petit éléphant dressé; Fromanger, no. 43) which the artist created around the same time. The Bugattis were as much a family of artists and artisans as mechanics and engineers. Carlo, Rembrandt’s father, designed furniture, interiors and objets d’art and was such an aesthetic polymath he was dubbed “Leonardo” by his friends. His brother Ettore, the founder and patron of the eponymous car brand, was one the most important figures in the history of 20th century motoring. Le petit elephant dressé would be adopted by Ettore in 1925 as the famous hood ornament for the most prestigious car of the era, the Bugatti Royale (fig. 1).
The plaster model of Le grand éléphant du Museum, Rachel was included in the first exhibition of Bugatti’s work at the Galerie Hébrard in Paris in 1904. To this day, only three bronze casts are known in this edition, including the present work.