Description
At all times, panthers have been a particular spur to the imagination. Bugatti used to spend time every day at the menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes to see the panthers which he considered as his “life and work companions”. He would then talk at length with the healers who tended the animals, in a mixture of French and Italian.
Bugatti had been permitted to visit the big cats, which had got used to the sculptor’s presence, outside the opening hours of the menagerie. These privileged moments of observation and approach gave him a thorough knowledge of their habits and behaviour. Bugatti thereby captured the big cats energy, dynamism and power and restored these perceptions in his sculptures.
This sculpture was acquired directly from the founder A.A. Hébrard, in October 1928, at a cost of 8000 francs. (The invoice is in our possession).
