Ettore Bugatti

"brother, Rembrandt, and a sister, Deanice. His parents later moved from Milan to Paris, and in both cities their houses were frequented by artists. A few of their names will suffice to show the kind of atmosphere in which the young Ettore grew up and which had so much influence upon him. Among them were Giacomo Puccini and Leoncavallo; Ricordi, the music publisher; Lillica, who was the librettist of most of Puccini’s operas; Arturo Rietti, well known for his pastels; the sculptors Prince Paul ‘Troubetzkoy, De Grandi and Ercole Rosa (Rembrandt's godfather); Giovanni Segantini, well known for his paintings of snow landscapes, whomar- ried Carlo Bugatti’s sister; and finally, when he was in Paris; Leo Tolstoy, whose philosophy left a lasting impression on the family."

"On March 12th he was driving in the Verona-Mantua event of one hundred miles. Eighteen tricars took part, and Ettore Bugatti won on a Prinetti tricar fitted with a De Dion-Bouton engine. Count Biscaretti was second, and Fraschini third. In the motor-car class, victory went to Agnelli, driving a Fiat."

"Carlo Bugatti and his environment had a great influence on his two sons, especially on Ettore, who learned from him to regard art as a flowering of one’s personality and not as a means of earning money. Ettore also learned that artistic effort is of no use unless one is gifted, and that everything is justifiable in an artist except mediocrity. This was the cause of his change of ambition quite early in life."

"world. Ettore Bugatti foresaw this, and was one of those who helped to make it possible. Yet to the end of his days he re- mained a figure of another age—an age in which the conveyor belt had not yet eliminated craftsmanship, when the search for the best was not subject to the demands of mass produc- tion, and when individual imagination could have free rein. It has been said that fundamentally Ettore Bugatti was an artist. The paradox is that he was an artist in a field which no one had considered to be artistic until he came on the scene, and in which he started to work just because he did not believe himself to be a true artist."

"(1) It should be remembered that Ettore Bugatti built up his busi- ness and equipped his experimental workshops by his own unaided efforts. He never received subsidies of any kind, unlike his chief foreign competitors who were given considerable financial help by their gov- ernments, notably in Italy and Germany. As for his aeroengines, during the war, they had not brought him a fortune."