Fondation Giacometti

The initial plaster of that standing woman was conceived in 1947 during the preparation for Giacometti’s first exhibition at Pierre Matisse, but the artist chose not to send it to New York. However the artist appreciated that figure enough to keep it in his main studio, in spite of its exiguity. Having been damaged, in the legs especially, the plaster was retouched by the artist for the monograph exhibition that the Kunsthalle in Bern dedicated to him in 1956. The plaster had then a flat pedestal in which the legs were planted, getting thinner towards the bottom in the shape of a stem. On return from the exhibition, the piece was deeply modified, and it is this final version that the artist had cast in 1957. The extent of these modifications is not known with any precision. The comparison within the documents in the archives shows in any case that Giacometti thickened the legs of the figure, added feet to it and changed the shape of the pedestal to a sloping pedestal. The plaster in this definitive aspect was never exhibited. It appears that all the modifications were carried out on the initial plaster, at least for the top part, for the traces of polychromy existing on the definitive plaster used for the casting are similar to those visible on a photograph of the initial plaster in 1951. In 1958, the artist decided to finish the piece by adding a double pedestal. The first castings were placed on that pedestal afterwards; for the ones that followed, the double pedestal was welded at the foundry. The piece was exhibited in 1956 outside the catalogue. It was sent by the artist to the foundry under the name “Femme debout n°10”. The title of Femme Leoni, used by the artist since at least 1959, comes from the name of the Venetian palace of Peggy Guggenheim who had received the first cast.

Inscribed with black ink under the socle "GIACOMETTI / N°10"

Alberto GIACOMETTI
Succession Alberto Giacometti
Fondation Giacometti

1956 Alberto Giacometti, Berne (Switzerland), Kunsthalle Bern, from June 16th to July 22nd 1956, no. 46
2007 L'atelier d'Alberto Giacometti, Paris (France), Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, from October 15th 2007 to February 11th 2008, no. 160
2013 Alberto Giacometti. Espace, tête, figure, Grenoble (France), Musée de Grenoble, from March 9th to June 9th 2013
2017 Alberto Giacometti - Tate Modern London, London (United Kingdom), Tate Gallery, from May 10th to September 10th 2017
2018 Alberto Giacometti Retrospective Québec, Quebec (Canada), Musée National des Beaux Arts du Québec, from February 8th to May 13th 2018
2018 Giacometti Retrospective Guggenheim New York, New York, NY (United States Of America), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, from June 8th to September 12th 2018
2018 Giacometti Restrospective Bilbao, Bilbao (Spain), Guggenheim Museum, from October 19th 2018 to February 24th 2019
2019 Alberto Giacometti Une aventure moderne, Villeneuve d'Ascq (France), LaM, Lille Métropole Musée d'art moderne d'art contemporain et d'art brut, from March 11th to June 11th 2019
2019 Alberto Giacometti, D'après le modèle (Prague)., Prague (Czech Republic), Veletržní palác, from July 18th to December 1st 2019
2020 Alberto Giacometti. Tête à tête., Stockholm (Sweden), Moderna Museet, from October 10th 2020 to May 30th 2021
2021 Barbara Chase-Riboud / Alberto Giacometti, Paris (France), Institut Giacometti, from October 20th 2021 to January 9th 2022
2023 The Encounter: Barbara Chase-Riboud/Alberto Giacometti., New York, NY (United States Of America), The Museum of Modern Art, from May 5th to October 9th 2023
2024 Ne pas parler de sculptures peintes., Paris (France), Institut Giacometti, from July 2nd to November 3rd 2024
2024 Alberto Giacometti / Giorgio Morandi. Moments immobiles., Paris (France), Institut Giacometti, from November 15th 2024 to March 2nd 2025
2025 Beauvoir, Sartre, Giacometti. Vertiges de l'Absolu. , Paris (France), Institut Giacometti, from June 19th to October 12th 2025
2026 Giacometti in the Temple of Dendur., New York, NY (United States Of America), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, from June 12th to September 8th 2026

Guy TOSATTO, Véronique WIESINGER, "La cage ouverte", in Beaux Quartiers, Grenoble : Société Grenobloise de Médias, no. H.S., spring 2013, p. 32, ill. p. 32
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), L'atelier d'Alberto Giacometti, Paris : Fondation Giacometti, 2007 / Paris : Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, 2007, cat. no. 160, p. 363
Véronique WIESINGER, Alberto Giacometti. Espace, tête, figure, Arles : Actes Sud, 2013 / Paris : Fondation Giacometti, 2013 / Grenoble : Musée de Grenoble, 2013, p. 98 & 175, ill. p. 99