Fondation Giacometti

The work on the human head, front and profile, is at the heart of Alberto Giacometti’s drawing practise. A great number of works take up that theme, in ball point and in pencil, on all kinds of supports, as much drawing paper as books, leaflets, newspaper pages and even restaurant paper tablecloths. By the continuous practise of this type of drawing, Giacometti accounts for his fascination for the face, his persistence to try to capture it and reproduce his vision. The head, having become generic, makes the singular features of the model disappear – the model often being Diego, the artist’s brother – to only retain the most general structure of the face, the sockets sharply marked, the oval framing of the face, the bridge of the nose and the shadows of the mouth and chin. Through the face, brought back to a working drawing with no particular identity, can be seen the structure of the skull itself. Giacometti related in 1963, in an interview with Jean Clay published in the December issue of the magazine Réalités, how the presence of the skull under the skin of the face was obvious to him when he was working on a head. In this drawing, two busts are superimposed, one of them standing out against the background by a few hatchings. The drawing, never reproduced in Giacometti’s lifetime, was signed by the artist in the bottom left, undoubtedly when it was given to James Lord who was a model.

Signed with a pencil at the bottom left corner "A. Giacometti"

Private collection
Thomas Gibson Fine Art Ltd
Private collection
Museum London
Sale Karl & Faber Kunstauktionen Munich (Germany), December 5th, 2008, lot n ° 1 416
Private collection

2009 The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), Maastricht (Netherlands), MECC, from 13th to March 22nd 2009

Moderne und Zeitgenössische Kunts, Munich : Karl & Faber Kunstauktionen, 2006, lot no. 1416
Impressionist & Modern Art. Day sale. Morning, New York, NY : Sotheby's Inc., 2007, lot no. 177
Moderne und Zeitgenössische Kunts. Ausgewählte Werke, Munich : Karl & Faber Kunstauktionen, 2008, lot no. 1416