Lioness of Nubia

The Lioness of Nubia is a work by the sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti (1884-1916). Born into a family of artists in Milan in 1884, Rembrandt Bugatti moved to Paris with his parents in 1904. He was a regular visitor to the Jardin des Plantes, where he met the famous foundryman and gallery owner Hébrard, who immediately signed him up to an exclusive publishing contract. By 1905, he was exhibiting his work at the Salon d'Automne at the Grand Palais in Paris, where he was rubbing shoulders with the greatest artists of the day, including Modigliani, Picasso, Derain and Apollinaire. At the invitation of the Royal Zoological Society, he moved to Antwerp in 1907, where he remained until 1914, exhibiting regularly in Brussels and Liège.
Initially conceived by Rembrandt Bugatti in 1909-1910 as a group 'Lion and Lioness of Nubia', the castings of the two separate fauns were offered by Fonderie Hébrard from 1922. This 'Lionne de Nubie' lies in wait, gazing straight ahead, the female being the principal hunter among the lions. All Bugatti's art is to be found in this alliance of naturalistic truth and geometric stylization heralding the art of decoration.