Collecting 101 | Bugatti Family (Carlo, Rembrandt, Ettore, Jean & Lidia)

The Bugattis’ claim to fame in the history of European design is unmatched: from patriarch Carlo’s beginnings as a furniture designer in Milan to his sons Ettore and Rembrandt’s successes in automobile design and sculpture, as well as his grandchildren’s career in art and motorcars.

Here is a short introduction to the Bugatti family, illustrated with highlights from The Bonmont Sale on 30 June in Cheserex, Switzerland, Bugatti to Lalique: The Mullin Collection on 24 July in Los Angeles and lots sold at Bonhams.

Jump to:

• Carlo Bugatti (1856–1940)
• Rembrandt Bugatti (1884–1916)
• Ettore Bugatti (1881–1947)
• Jean Bugatti (1909–1939)
• Lidia Bugatti (1907–1972)

Carlo Bugatti furniture from The Mullin Collection

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Carlo Bugatti (1856–1940)

Carlo was born in Milan in 1856. He studied at Milan’s Brera Academy and then at the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris, before founding his own design atelier in his hometown in 1880. He maintained a studio there until 1904, but quickly began to find buyers and praise outside of Italy. Eventually, he relocated his studio to Paris.

Strongly influenced by Art Nouveau aesthetics, Carlo rejected the heaviness of classical, Baroque, or Renaissance-style furniture which was fashionable at the time. Although he is most famous for his furniture, he also made silverware, musical instruments, ceramics, paintings, and designed interiors. Carlo’s work wove together organic shapes and motifs with ‘exotic’ elements influenced by Orientalist and Moorish visual culture. He used natural materials like wood, parchment, velum, and copper to create pieces with rich tactile materiality.

Success at the 1888 Milan Industrial Arts Exhibition brought him international recognition. In the 1902 Exhibition for Modern Decorative Arts in Turin, he further established his name as one of the most avant-garde furniture designers in Europe. Not only was he influenced by Art Nouveau thinking around curving lines and light, natural forms, but he, in turn, influenced the course of subsequent evolutions in innovative design in the 20th century.

Carlo’s work is held in museum collections around the world, including the Art Institute of Chicago and the Kunstgerwerbemusum in Berlin. His work remains entirely distinctive and has continued to generate high interest on the secondary market throughout the decades since his death in 1940. A double-sided desk designed and made by him sold for $1.5 million in 2007, setting a world auction record for the artist.

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Carlo Bugatti (1856-1940), Throne. Sold for US$70,350 inc. premium on 24 July in Los Angeles.

Carlo Bugatti (1856-1940), Throne. Estimate: $12,000 - $18,000

Rembrandt Bugatti (1884–1916)

Carlo’s younger son Rembrandt was born in 1884 in Milan into a vibrant artistic household. With a name like his, which was chosen for him by his uncle – the painter Giovanni Segantini – Rembrandt was always destined to be an artist. He was raised helping his father Carlo in his design studio. Among his first sculptures were a group of four cows, created when he was 16 and modelled in clay that he found in his father’s workshop. At the age of 19, he had his first exhibition of sculptures at the Venice Biennale in 1903.

Rembrandt moved with his family to Paris the same year, when his father relocated his studio there. He began working with gallerist Adrien-Aurélien Hébrard, and exhibited his work at the Salon de la Société des Beaux-Arts and the Salon d’Automne. In 1906, he won the Grand Prize for Sculpture in Milan. His career was gathering momentum, with his sculptures consistently garnering praise and acclaim throughout Europe.

Rembrandt Bugatti’s sculptures chiefly took exotic animals as their subjects, bringing them to life in striking ways. Many of these animals were new to Europe, and his sculptures were often the first way viewers encountered them. He made models from life, in front of the animals, giving them an exceptional dynamism and connection to life.

It was in Paris’ Jardin des Plantes and Antwerp’s zoo that Rembrandt sculpted the animals he saw, spending most of his time with them and getting to know them each closely. His 1905 work of three walking panthers is an iconic example of his affinity for these creatures in all their majesty.

In 1911, at the age of 27, Rembrandt was awarded the French Légion d’Honneur for art. Three years later, the First World War broke out. Rembrandt briefly volunteered in a military hospital in Antwerp – while there, he witnessed how Antwerp Zoo was forced to kill many of its animals, many of which he had used as models for his sculptures. This horrific combination of dying soldiers and dying animals brought on a serious depression. He returned to Paris in 1916, after having struggled with tuberculosis, and died at the age of 32.

Rembrandt Bugatti (1884-1916), Trois panthères marchant. Sold for €3,678,400 inc. premium on 5 June in Paris.

Ettore Bugatti (1881–1947)

Rembrandt’s older brother Ettore was born in 1881 in Milan. Like Rembrandt, he grew up surrounded by creativity. Unlike his father and brother, he chose to channel this energy into mechanical design. Ettore never had formal training as an engineer, but showed such a natural aptitude that his father helped him into an apprenticeship at the Prinetti and Stucchi factory when he was 16. Within two years, he had developed the prototype of his own automobile, the Bugatti Type 1, a twin engined tricycle he raced in Italy.

His next design, the first with four wheels, was the Type 2, which won a prize at the Milan Trade Fair in 1901 and catapulted Ettore onto the international automobile design stage. He began working with De Dietrich in Alsace to develop his Type 3/4 and Type 5/6/7 vehicles. In 1909, he finally set out on his own with the establishment of Automobiles E. Bugatti, creating the Type 10, his first truly independent design. Numerous significant motor cars followed, from the dominant Type 35 Grand Prix car, to the imposing and elegant Type 41 Royale. One of the six surviving Royales was sold in 1987 by Robert Brooks—who was Chairman of Bonhams from 2000–18—for a world record $9.8 million at the time.

During the World Wars, the Bugatti factory also designed airplane engines, a motorised railway car, and surgical instruments. The Second World War decimated the factory in Alsace, and in 1939 Ettore’s son Jean was killed while testing a Bugatti Type 57. These two factors led to a decline in fortunes for the company. Nevertheless, the legacy of Bugatti vehicles as ideal combinations of mechanical prowess and artistic design excellence has made them fixtures of any history of automobile design. Ettore died in 1947 and was inducted into the Automobile Hall of Fame in 2000.

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Bugatti Type 43. Sold for CHF454,250 inc. premium on 30 June in Cheserex, Switzerland

4. Jean Bugatti (1909–1939)

Ettore’s son Jean was born in Cologne in 1909. As a young man, he quickly became an integral part of the Bugatti Automobile business. He led on the designs of the aforementioned Type 41 Royale, and created one of the most iconic sports cars of the period with the Jean Bugatti Roadster body for the Type 55. He also designed the Type 57, a touring car that became one of Bugatti’s most popular models.

Jean’s influence was key to making Bugatti one of the most highly regarded luxury car manufacturers in Europe before the Second World War. However, in 1939, he was killed while testing an example of the race specification Type 57 after swerving to avoid a cyclist.

1932 Bugatti Type 55 Super Sport Roadster. Factory coachwork, Jean Bugatti Design. Sold for US$7,100,000 inc. premium on 5 March 2020 in Fernandina Beach Golf Club.

1932 Bugatti Type 55 Super Sport Roadster. Factory coachwork, Jean Bugatti Design. Sold for US$7,100,000 inc. premium on 5 March 2020 in Fernandina Beach Golf Club.

5. Lidia Bugatti (1907–1972)

Ettore’s daughter Lidia was also an artist, although her career is now comparatively forgotten despite the success she enjoyed during her lifetime. She was born in 1907 and was a visual artist, as well as a key member of the Bugatti Automobile business. Many of her works brought together natural motifs with images of Bugatti vehicles.

Lidia also occasionally cast sculptures in bronze at her uncle Rembrandt’s foundry, sharing his interest in depicting animals. After the death of her brother Jean, she and her sister L’Ebé stepped in to help run the family factory before its eventual closure in the 1950s. She married Count François de Boigne and died in Paris in 1972.