Fondation Giacometti

Annette Arm (1923-1993) met Giacometti in Geneva in 1943 and became his wife in 1949. From 1946, when she joined Giacometti in Paris to live with him in rue Hippolyte-Maindron, until the end of the artist’s life, Annette was one of Alberto’s favourite models. The sheer quantity of sculptures, paintings and drawings – whether portraits, nudes or studies – is only comparable to those Alberto made of his brother Diego. The identification of the model, in the case of this painting, is however not so easy: the position and the form of the belly are the same as in many portraits of Annette, but the face is so worked on that the model’s features are almost no longer recognizable in an univocal way, while the hairdo bears no resemblance to the one Annette wore in the Fifties. As happened with some of Diego’s busts from the Fifties and Sixties, it seems several models were merged to form a generic image that goes beyond the portrait as such. Evidently Giacometti worked a lot on this painting, and corrected several times the shape of the head and the face – as demonstrated by the thick layer of paint where the head is, that conceals the previous stages of the work. Though the position of the model and its treatment bring this painting closer to a drawing dating from 1955, this painting, as a work in progress in the studio is visible on photographs from 1960. It pre-supposes that modifications on this painting happened over quite a long period of time and that to the initial model of Annette, Giacometti integrated elements from memory and even some features from other models, like Caroline, of whom he made a great number of portraits from 1960. Neither signed or dated by the artist, this painting was never exhibited in the artist’s lifetime.

No inscription

Annette GIACOMETTI
Succession Annette Giacometti
Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti

1977 Alberto Giacometti. Plastiken. Gemälde. Zeichnungen, Duisburg (Germany), Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum Duisburg, from September 17th to November 27th 1977, no. 67
2001 Alberto Giacometti in Postwar Paris, Norwich (United Kingdom), Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (University of East Anglia), from October 2nd to December 9th 2001, no. 45
2004 Contre / Images, Nîmes (France), Carré d'art, Musée d'art contemporain de Nîmes, from June 3rd to September 26th 2004
2005 The Women of Giacometti, New York, NY (United States Of America), Pace Wildenstein, from October 28th to December 3rd 2005
2006 The Women of Giacometti, Dallas, TX (United States Of America), Nasher Sculpture Center, from January 14th to April 9th 2006
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Kamakura (Japan), The Museum of Modern Art, from June 3rd to July 30th 2006, no. II-5
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Kobe (Japan), Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, from August 8th to October 1st 2006, no. II-5
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Sakura (Japan), Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, from October 10th to December 3rd 2006, no. II-5
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. 42
2008 Alberto Giacometti, Rotterdam (Netherlands), Kunsthal, from October 18th 2008 to February 8th 2009, no. 112
2010 Alberto Giacometti. Der Ursprung des Raumes, Wolfsbourg (Germany), Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, from November 20th 2010 to March 6th 2011, no. 31
2011 Alberto Giacometti. Der Ursprung des Raumes, Salzbourg (Austria), Museum der Moderne Mönchsberg, from March 26th to July 3rd 2011
2011 Alberto Giacometti. Una retrospectiva. Colección de la Fundación Alberto y Annette Giacometti, Malaga (Spain), Museo Picasso, from October 17th 2011 to February 5th 2012
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
2014 Giacometti, Milan (Italy), Galleria d'arte moderna, from October 8th 2014 to February 1st 2015
2015 Giacometti and Tériade: Friendship Without End, New York, NY (United States Of America), Yoshii Gallery, from April 28th to June 27th 2015
2016 Alberto Giacometti retrospective at Yuz Museum, Shanghai (China), The Shanghai Yuz Museum, from March 22nd to July 31st 2016
2017 Alberto Giacometti - Tate Modern London, London (United Kingdom), Tate Gallery, from May 10th to September 10th 2017
2017 Alberto Giacometti after the models., Séoul (South Korea), Seoul Arts Center, from December 21st 2017 to April 15th 2018
2018 Giacometti - Bacon, Riehen, Bâle (Switzerland), Fondation Beyeler, from April 29th to September 2nd 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
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
2023 Alberto Giacometti: Beginning, again., Tel Aviv (Israel), Tel Aviv Museum of Art, from April 30th to October 7th 2023

Siegfried SALZMANN, Alberto Giacometti. Plastiken. Gemälde. Zeichnungen, Duisburg : Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, 1977, cat. no. 67, p. 227, ill. p. 178
Françoise COHEN, Contre / Images, Arles : Actes Sud, 2004, p. 153, ill. p. 73
Steven NASH, The Women of Giacometti, New York, NY : Pace Wildenstein, 2005, p. 92, ill. p. 75
Véronique WIESINGER, Toshio YAMANASHI (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti, Tokyo : The Tokyo Shimbun, 2006, cat. no. II-5, p. 36, ill. p. 37
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. 42, p. 183, pl. 306, ill. p. 186
Véronique WIESINGER, Charlotte VAN LINGEN (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti, Harderwijk : D'jonge Hond, 2008, cat. no. 112, ill. p. 148
Markus BRUDERLIN, Toni STOOSS (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti. Der Ursprung des Raumes, Ostfildern : HATJE CANTZ VERLAG, 2010 / Wolfsbourg : Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2010 / Salzbourg : Museum der Moderne Mönchsberg, 2010, p. 252, ill. p. 157
Markus BRUDERLIN, Toni STOOSS (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti. The Origin of Space, Ostfildern : HATJE CANTZ VERLAG, 2010 / Wolfsburg : Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2010, p. 252, ill. p. 157
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), Giacometti, Sao Paulo : Cosac & Naify Ediçoes, 2012, ill. p. 58
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti. A Retrospective, Barcelona : Ediciones Poligrafa, 2012 / Malaga : Museo Picasso, 2012, ill. p. 196
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti. Una retrospectiva, Barcelona : Ediciones Poligrafa, 2012 / Malaga : Museo Picasso, 2012, ill. p. 196