Fondation Giacometti

In 1958, Giacometti started to work on the illustration for a book of poems by Léna Leclercq, “Pomme endormie”. The book was published that year in a non-illustrated edition with Marc Barbezat, the publisher in Décines, Isère, with whom Giacometti had already worked two years earlier for the cover of Jean Genet’s “Balcon”, published in 1956 with an original lithograph by the artist. Léna Leclercq knew the Giacometti couple and corresponded abundantly with them, sharing news of her work as a poet as well as of her daily life. The project for an illustration by Alberto Giacometti accompanying a deluxe edition of “Pomme endormie”, must have come up as early as 1958, attested by a letter from Léna Leclercq to the Giacomettis.

Inscribed on the top left corner ""Jacometti" / La Coupole, Paris, / Nov .18th. 1958 [date soulignée]"

Sale Christie's London London (United Kingdom), April 4th, 2007, lot n ° 583

Impressionist and Modern Art, London : Christie's London, 2007, lot no. 583, p. 85, ill. p. 85