Rembrandt Bugatti was born in Milan in 1884. He was the youngest son of the cabinetmaker Carlo Bugatti, an artist who created extraordinary works, and the brother of Ettore, who founded Bugatti Automobiles.
When Ettore built his first car in 1900, Rembrandt was already an established sculptor; he exhibited his first animal sculpture, a lowing cow, in Milan in 1901.
In 1906, Carlo moved his workshop and his family to Paris. Rembrandt was awarded a contract with the Hébrard art foundry. He was invited to Antwerp by the Royal Zoological Society to sculpt the residents of this famous zoo. He created the rearing elephant (the "Elephant dressé") that would later decorate the hood of his brother's Bugatti Royale. Then the First World War came. He returned to Paris and the zoo closed. He committed suicide by gas inhalation, unable to accept the world at war - like a Nijinsky driven mad.