Carlo Bugatti

CARLO BUGATTI (Milan, Italy, 1856-1940, Molsheim, France).
Large cabinet.
Wood, bone, copper and vellum.
Certificate can be issued.
Without back.
Measurements: 310 x 176 x 37 cm.

Bugatti's most creative and exotic production was made at the request of a demanding clientele that loved the new taste of the turn of the century, and this large cabinet is a faithful example of this. This piece is also a clear example of the "Bugatti style", where the orientalist taste or "maroquinerie", very much in vogue in the first decade of the 1900s, enriches the entire piece. Through a restrained work of craftsmanship and design, the Milanese artist manages to turn this piece of furniture into an absolute luxury object with a curious exotic and colorful appearance. The forms used evoke the Moorish style, from the use of the horseshoe arch and the legs that simulate columns, to the ornamental work of geometric and naturalistic shapes through copper and bone inlays. The front, decorated with herons in flight on vellum, crosses the Moorish border to enter the oriental aesthetic.

Carlo Bugatti, from a young age, showed his creative and artistic talents, so he was enrolled by his father at the Brera Academy, where he met the artist Giovanni Segantini, and later attended the Ecole de Beax-Arts in Paris. Later, in the late 1970s, Bugatti worked for the cabinetmaker Mentasti, owner of the Piccolo Stabilimento di Lavorazione del Legno on Via San Marco in Milan. From 1888 onwards, there is evidence of a Bugatti workshop in Via Castelfidardo 6, Milan. That same year, Carlo established himself as a cabinetmaker at the Italian Exhibition in London. His furniture is unique, using precious woods as well as ivory, copper, mother-of-pearl, camel and fallow deer hide. These creations were especially appreciated and harmonized well with the exotic and Moorish taste typical of the time. As early as 1890, the famous cabinetmaker had already opened a studio-workshop in Paris, where, at the Universal Exhibition of 1900, his furniture was awarded prizes marking the international triumph of Art Nouveau.
Settling in Paris in 1903, he met the art dealer and foundryman Adrien A. Hèbrard (1865-1937), who convinced him to devote himself to sculpture, commissioning objects and ornaments, including a fantastic bestiary that Hèbrard exhibited in his gallery in 1907. After leaving Paris in 1910, Bugatti moved to Pierrerfonds, in the Oise, where he became mayor. The last years of his life were marked by dramatic events, such as the suicide of his son Rembrandt in 1916, the death of his daughter Deanice and finally that of his wife Therese. In 1935 he decided to move to Alsace, to Molsheim, where his son Ettore had opened the famous Bugatti car factory and where he died in April 1940. His work is currently represented in the Musée d'Orsay and the Metropolitan in New York, among other important institutions.