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. The number 5/6 was cast in April 1960.

Signature and cast number on the base to its proper left "Alberto Giacometti 5/6"

Alberto GIACOMETTI
Pierre Matisse Gallery
Private collection
Sale Christie's New York New York, NY, May 4th, 2005, lot n ° 35

Impressionist and Modern Art. Evening Sale, New York, NY : Christie's New York, 2005, lot no. 35, p. 120, ill. p. 121