Lot Essay
Cf: Jacques Chalom des Cordes and Vronique Fromanger des Cordes, Rembrandt Bugatti Catalogue Raisonn, Paris, 1987, pp. 232-233 (another cast)
Philippe Dejean, Carlo Rembrandt Ettore Jean Bugatti, Paris, 1981, p. 210 (another cast)
Flix Marcilhac, Jean Dunand, His Life and Works, London, 1991, p. 89, Cat. No. 1134 (Labourdette apartment)
This work is recorded in the archives of the Conservatoire Rembrandt Bugatti, Paris. Only ten casts are known to exist.
Four of the ten numbered examples are in permanent museum collections in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The original plaster model of the sculpture is in the Museum of Modern Art in Rome, gifted by A.A. Hbrard in 1924.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is hosting a Bugatti exhibition 18 July-19 September 1999.
The present sculpture was purchased in 1925 by Madame Georgette Labourdette, mother of the present owner, directly from the Bugatti family. Madame Labourdette was an enthusiastic collector and patron, and in 1926 commissioned Eileen Gray and Jean Dunand to design the interior of her apartment at 143, rue de la Pompe in Paris. The commission, in extravagant cubist style, was directly inspired by African statuary and was reviewed the following year in the journal L'Art d'aujourd'hui in its Spring 1927 edition.
The Bugatti sculpture formed part of this interior and can be seen in its original setting in the contemporary photograph reproduced.
Philippe Dejean, Carlo Rembrandt Ettore Jean Bugatti, Paris, 1981, p. 210 (another cast)
Flix Marcilhac, Jean Dunand, His Life and Works, London, 1991, p. 89, Cat. No. 1134 (Labourdette apartment)
This work is recorded in the archives of the Conservatoire Rembrandt Bugatti, Paris. Only ten casts are known to exist.
Four of the ten numbered examples are in permanent museum collections in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The original plaster model of the sculpture is in the Museum of Modern Art in Rome, gifted by A.A. Hbrard in 1924.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is hosting a Bugatti exhibition 18 July-19 September 1999.
The present sculpture was purchased in 1925 by Madame Georgette Labourdette, mother of the present owner, directly from the Bugatti family. Madame Labourdette was an enthusiastic collector and patron, and in 1926 commissioned Eileen Gray and Jean Dunand to design the interior of her apartment at 143, rue de la Pompe in Paris. The commission, in extravagant cubist style, was directly inspired by African statuary and was reviewed the following year in the journal L'Art d'aujourd'hui in its Spring 1927 edition.
The Bugatti sculpture formed part of this interior and can be seen in its original setting in the contemporary photograph reproduced.