An animalier of extraordinary skill, Rembrandt Bugatti’s full technical virtuosity is foremost exemplified in his magnificent renderings of large cats. According to Veronique Fromanger, author of his Catalogue raisonné, Bugatti referred to panthers and leopards as ‘my partners in life and work’. He continually returned to them throughout his short-lived career, finding in their forms an endless source of majesty and elegance, until his unt.mes ly death, aged 31.

Bugatti modelled Panthère dévorant in 1906. Born in Milan, Bugatti and his family had moved to Paris in 1902, whereat the young artist encountered an array of exotic animals in the wildlife sanctuary near the Jardin des Plantes. In 1904, he had started working with his life-long bronze founder A.A. Hébrard, a relationship which would prove both productive and nurturing.

Bugatti’s attentive eye to the physiognomy of his subject was combined with an extraordinary ability to capture poses of profound vitality and expressiveness. Hours of observation were distilled into a single moment of profound gestural potency. In the present work, the panther’s back is arched and its furled hind legs are ready to spring should danger encroach; the cat’s ears are bent backwards and the strong muscles of its front legs ripple underneath the skin.

A sculpture that consolidates the animal’s qualities of ferocity and beauty, Panthère dévorant attests to Bugatti’s unique sensitivity to both the structure and the spirit of his subjects. A rare model, Panthère dévorant was executed in a known edition of 3.