Fondation Giacometti -  [Tête de jeune fille aux boucles d'oreilles]
AGD 883

[Tête de jeune fille aux boucles d'oreilles]

Date 1917 - 1918

Medium Oil and pencil on cardboard

Dimensions 7,79 x 6,69 in.

Collection Fondation Giacometti, Paris

Description

Probably because of the ear-rings that Ottilia was wearing in other portraits by Alberto and Giovanni Giacometti, this painting has been interpreted wrongly as a portrait of the artist’s younger sister, born in 1904 and deceased in 1937. The lack of resemblance to other portraits or photographs of Ottilia though refutes that hypothesis, all the more as one can account for the fact that several portraits made by Giacometti during his youth take as their models people from outside the circle of family members, among them friends and even peasants from the Stampa region. That one can still see in the photos from the Sixties that small portrait above the door in the family’s living room at Stampa presupposes that it is a person close to the family. As with other portraits from his youth, one can see in the pointillist technique of this small portrait a remarkable resemblance to the portraits painted by Giovanni, Alberto’s father, around 1907, especially as far as the use of colours and the way to treat the background are concerned. Stylistically close to a portrait of Diego dating from 1917 and a self-portrait dating from 1918, this painting has probably been made between those two dates. It was never exhibited in Giacometti’s lifetime.

Inscription

No inscription

Provenance

Annette GIACOMETTI
Succession Alberto et Annette Giacometti
Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti

Exhibition history

1969 Alberto Giacometti, Paris (France), Orangerie des Tuileries, from October 15th 1969 to January 12th 1970, no. 125
2015 Alberto Giacometti, Istanbul, Tepebasi-Beyoglu-Istanbul, PERA MUSEUM, from February 10th to April 26th 2015
2017 Alberto Giacometti after the models., Séoul (South Korea), Seoul Arts Center, from December 21st 2017 to April 15th 2018
2019 Alberto Giacometti, D'après le modèle (Prague)., Prague (Czech Republic), Veletržní palác, from July 18th to December 1st 2019
2021 Alberto Giacometti. Une rétrospective. Le réel merveilleux., MONACO (Monaco), Grimaldi Forum Monaco, from July 3rd to August 29th 2021
2022 Sophie Ristelhueber, Paris, Institut Giacometti, from September 27th to November 30th 2022

Bibliography

Jean LEYMARIE (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti, Paris : Ministère d'Etat des Affaires culturelles. RMN, 1969, cat. no. 125, p. 154

To search for a work, consult the Alberto Giacometti Database