2019, Bugatti – The Animal Gazer

The Animal Gazer is a hypnotic novel inspired by the strange and fascinating life of sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti, brother of the fabled automaker. With World War I closing in and the Belle Époque teetering to a close, Bugatti leaves his native Milan for Paris, where he encounters Rodin and casts his bronzes at the same foundry used by the French master. In Paris and then Antwerp, he obsessively observes and sculpts the baboons, giraffes, and panthers in the municipal zoos, finding empathy with their plight and identifying with their life in captivity. As bombs fell over the Belgian city, the zoo authorities are forced to make a heart-wrenching decision about the fate of the caged animals – leaving Bugatti stricken with grief from which he never recovers.

“In this elegant and disquieting novel, Edgardo Franzosini gives us a memorable portrait not only of a famed yet ill-fated artist most at home in the zoo, but also of a Europe whose cruelties are infinitely more extreme than any form of animal behavior.”
―Michael Brenson, former New York Times art critic

“The Animal Gazer takes you on a glorious journey into the heart of cosmopolitan Paris as you have never known it before. Through the life of Rembrandt Bugatti, a sculptor with the panache of his name, this lively, fast-paced narrative evokes an exceptional epoch in all its color and eccentric charm.”
―Nicholas Fox Weber, author of Le Corbusier: A Life

The gallery, headed by Edward Horswell has specialised in the work of Bugatti for some 50 years, publishing a monograph on the sculptor, now in its 5th edition. This exhibition affords the visitor a rare opportunity to view Bugatti’s sculpture up close, alongside a rare selection of Bugatti family memorabilia.