Carlo Bugatti (1856-1940)

A decorator and an architect, creator and manufacturer of furniture, jewellery, musical instruments and even of a racing bicycle, Carlo Bugatti was particularly inventive and original. He made his debut in Milan around 1880, became successful outside Italy for the first time in 1888, and triumphed at the Turin decorative art exhibition in 1902. He settled in Paris in 1904, before retiring to Pierrefonds in 1910. The exhibition endeavours to trace his career, to show the diversity of his production and his quest for a purer form, the trend of his whole production. He was famous, but his two sons, Rembrandt Bugatti, the animal sculptor, and Ettore Bugatti, the automobile constructor, were to be even more so.