Fondation Giacometti

Having arrived in Paris in 1922, Alberto Giacometti occupied, from 1926, a small studio in Montparnasse, that he never left until his death. The artist’s drawings capture the angles of this tiny room where his creations piled up, and show the way he looked at his own work. In the part of the studio chosen here one recognizes in the foreground a woman’s bust, then, behind on a table, a standing figurine and a man’s bust. The sculptures stand out from the back of the studio wall, suggested by a few horizontal and vertical lines. The drawing, centred in the middle of the sheet, subtly radiates on the whole surface of the paper. The pencil sets out to envelop the forms without delimiting a unique outline. By multiplying the strokes around the objects and weaving tightly held links between each figure, he materialises the relations between the objects and their disposition in the space. The woman depicted at the bottom left is the upper part of the sculpture “Grande femme assise” from 1958, cut in half by the frame of the image. This drawing can be put in relation to a series dated 1958, representing some of the studio corners, where one can make out sculptures on tables, on small turntables, or directly placed on the floor, in particular two drawings, from private collections, signed and dated 1958, where the sculpture Grande femme assise appears in full, behind elements that compose the apparent mess of the studio where each piece is in reality individualised and discernable. This drawing has been exhibited several times after Giacometti’s death, notably in the exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 2001.

Signed and dated at the bottom, right 1958 "Alberto Giacometti 1958"

Sale Sotheby's London London (United Kingdom), April 22nd, 1971, lot n ° 101

1968 Alberto Giacometti. Dessins, Paris (France), Galerie Claude Bernard
2001 Alberto Giacometti. Le dessin à l'oeuvre, Paris (France), Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, from January 23rd to April 9th 2001
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
2002 Alberto Giacometti in Postwar Paris, Lausanne (Switzerland), Fondation de l'Hermitage, from February 1st to May 12th 2002

Contrasts, London : Hanover Gallery, 1967, cat. no. 27
André DU BOUCHET, Alberto Giacometti. Dessins, Paris : Galerie Claude Bernard, 1968, cat. no. 39
Impressionist and Modern Watercolours and Drawings, London : Sotheby & Co, 1971, lot no. 101, p. 163, ill. p. 162
Agnès de LA BEAUMELLE, Alberto Giacometti. Le dessin à l'oeuvre, Paris : Gallimard, 2001 / Paris : Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, 2001, cat. no. 148, p. 240, ill. p. 187
Michael PEPPIATT, Alberto Giacometti in Postwar Paris, New Haven, Londres : Yale University Press, 2001, cat. no. 70, p. 155, ill. p. 111
Alberto Giacometti. Oeuvres de la maturité, Lausanne : Fondation de l'Hermitage, 2002, cat. no. 76, p. 168, ill. p. 130