Fondation Giacometti

The landscape is a theme Giacometti regularly treated throughout his life. However, this fantasy landscape is very different from the real landscapes the artist could have seen around him, and that he often painted and drew, like the mountain landscapes of Stampa and Maloja, in Switzerland, the garden in Stampa or the urban landscapes of the streets of Montparnasse near his Parisian studio. Giacometti here took up the motif of the man and the tree, already treated in a series of drawings that were made in a colour lithograph published in the magazine “Verve” in December 1952. In 1954, Giacometti went back on that theme for the door to the tomb of Liliane Kaufmann, commissioned by her son Edgar Junior. For the décor of Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot”, Giacometti conceived again in 1961 a tree similar to a calligraphy in space, that enters into dialogue with the actors of the play. The man, the tree and the mountain are treated in this painting like three equal elements that give rhythm to the space of the painting, in a space undetermined and flat. This arrangement is reminiscent of some sculptures from 1949-1950 like “La clairière” and “La forêt” in which Giacometti established some equivalences between the human figure and the silhouette of the tree, and between the head and the compact shape of a rock, replaced in this painting by that of the mountain. In contrast to many pieces of the end of the Fifties, painted in grey tones, Giacometti here used colours – red, green, blue – enhanced by black and white strokes. It is well documented that this painting was done during a night in 1958, thanks to a letter written by Annette Giacometti to Isaku Yanaihara. This painting was never exhibited in the artist’s lifetime. Another painting of the same format exists representing the same composition, signed and dated 1958, which was probably made at the same time.

No inscription

Annette GIACOMETTI
Succession Annette Giacometti
Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti

1994 Alberto Giacometti. Skulpturer. Mälningar. Teckningar, Malmö (Sweden), Malmö Konsthall, from October 29th 1994 to January 22nd 1995
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Kamakura (Japan), The Museum of Modern Art, from June 3rd to July 30th 2006
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Kobe (Japan), Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, from August 8th to October 1st 2006, no. IV-21
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Kobe (Japan), Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, from August 8th to October 1st 2006, no. IV-21
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Sakura (Japan), Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, from October 10th to December 3rd 2006, no. IV-21
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. 34
2008 Cézanne & Giacometti. Paths of doubt, Humlebæk (Denmark), Louisiana Museum for Moderne Kunst, from February 15th to June 29th 2008, no. 136
2008 Alberto Giacometti, Rotterdam (Netherlands), Kunsthal, from October 18th 2008 to February 8th 2009, no. 20
2012 Alberto Giacometti. Coleção da Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, Paris, Sao Paulo (Brazil), Pinacoteca do estado, from March 24th to June 17th 2012
2012 Alberto Giacometti. Coleção da Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, Paris, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Museu de Arte Moderna, from July 17th to September 16th 2012
2012 Alberto Giacometti. Colección de la Fundación Alberto y Annette Giacometti,París, Buenos Aires (Argentina), Fundación PROA, from October 13th 2012 to January 9th 2013
2016 Alberto Giacometti retrospective at Yuz Museum, Shanghai (China), The Shanghai Yuz Museum, from March 22nd to July 31st 2016
2022 Alberto Giacometti Toward the ultimate figure. , Cleveland (United States Of America), Cleveland Museum of Art, from March 12th to June 12th 2022
2022 Alberto Giacometti Toward the ultimate figure. , Seattle, WA (United States Of America), Seattle Art Museum, from July 14th to October 9th 2022
2022 Alberto Giacometti Toward the ultimate figure., Houston, TX (United States Of America), The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, from November 13th 2022 to February 12th 2023
2023 Alberto Giacometti Toward the ultimate figure. (Kansas), Kansas City, MO (United States Of America), The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, from March 18th to June 18th 2023
2025 Alberto Giacometti at the Measure of the World., Brême (Germany), Kunsthalle, from October 11th 2025 to February 15th 2026
2026 Alberto Giacometti - Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (China), Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum, from July 16th to December 6th 2026

Jacques DUPIN, Alberto Giacometti, Paris : Maeght éditeur, Paris, 1962, ill. p. 158
Yves BONNEFOY, Alberto Giacometti. Biographie d'une oeuvre, Paris : Flammarion, 1991, cat. no. 465, ill. p. 479
Sune NORDGREN (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti. Skulpturer. Mälningar. Teckningar, Stockholm : Raster Förlag, 1994, p. 219, ill. p. non reproduit
Véronique WIESINGER, Toshio YAMANASHI (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti, Tokyo : The Tokyo Shimbun, 2006, cat. no. IV-21, p. 119, ill. p. 119
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), L'atelier d'Alberto Giacometti, Paris : Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, 2007 / Paris : Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, 2007, cat. no. 34, p. 216, pl. 254 et 348, ill. p. 157 et 215
Felix A. BAUMANN-BRUCKNER, Poul Erik TOJNER (under the direction of), Cézanne & Giacometti. Paths of Doubt, Ostfildern : HATJE CANTZ VERLAG, 2008, cat. no. 136, p. 353, ill. p. 331
Véronique WIESINGER, Charlotte VAN LINGEN (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti, Harderwijk : D'jonge Hond, 2008, cat. no. 21, ill. p. 84
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), Giacometti, Sao Paulo : Cosac & Naify Ediçoes, 2012, ill. p. 114
Yves BONNEFOY, Alberto Giacometti. Biographie d'une oeuvre, Paris : Flammarion, 2012, cat. no. 465, ill. p. 479