Studio: international art (38.1906)

Rembrandt Bugatti

was then but twenty, and he here claimed the atten-
tion of his peers by means of four little plaster models
representing stags, storks, a lion and a lioness.
The naturalness, the charming grace, the intelligent
transcription of life displayed in these little animal
groups, modest in dimensions, but bold and
sober in handling, settled the matter of his nomina-
tion as an associate of the Societe Nationale.

Whether in transcribing the eternal force and
sovereign majesty of the lion, the infinite supple-
ness, the undulating cadences of the tiger’s walk,
or the elephant’s monstrous body; whether he
surprise a doe and her fawns in their retreat, or
note the leisurely stride of the camel, or show us a

pair or wolves sniffing the air, or goats struggling
among themselves to get at the green leaves on
some hanging branch, or a meditative mother cat
with young ones curled up at her feet, or pelicans
opening wide their foolish beaks, or a monkey
scratching the ground, Bugatti everywhere pro-
claims himself an infinitely perspicacious observer
of those distinctive characteristics which give to
the animal its own expressive pose, its familiar
attitudes, its habitual demeanour, things the per-
fectly adequate union of which is essential in order
to produce the impression of real life.

Outside all consideration of art respecting fidelity
of modelling, one cannot remain indifferent to the

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