Fondation Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti explored the correspondences between the tree and the human figure right from the end of the Forties: this theme, that one finds in sculpture on the doors to the tomb of Liliane Kaufmann in 1956 and in the painting “Homme, arbre et montagne” in 1958, had generated, as early as 1949, a series of preparatory drawings with a print. Among those drawings, several, including this one, have been made on transfer paper, a paper used by Giacometti to create his lithographs. This type of paper enables a transfer of the drawing onto a lithographic mould by a worker specialised in lithograph, in order to make printing possible. Three different versions of the lithograph “L’Arbre” are known, printed from three of these drawings, presenting a tiny human figure facing a tree that occupies the full height of the sheet. One of those three lithographs was produced in a large un-numbered edition, in the magazine Verve, in issue 27-28, volume VII in December 1952, published by Tériade, who had known Giacometti since the end of the Twenties. This double-sided drawing bears on its front the date 1949, the oldest in the series, but it is possible, as was common with Giacometti, that he dated it subsequently and erroneously. Several of these preparatory drawings to the lithograph “L’Arbre”, were, like this one, made with coloured pencils whose use, in Giacometti’s graphic oeuvre, is very rare. In the case of this drawing, Giacometti drew, above the lithographic pencil normally used on the smooth layer that enables the transfer, a background coloured with big hatchings of red, orange and yellow that prefigure what was to be the lithograph published in “Verve”, printed in five colours. The back presents another version of the drawing, made solely with a black lithographic pencil. The work, it appears, was never exhibited or published in the artist’s lifetime.

Signed and dated with a pencil at the bottom right corner "Alberto Giacometti 1949"

Private collection
Sale Christie's New York New York, NY, November 7th, 2008, lot n ° 604

1978 Alberto Giacometti, Saint-Paul-de-Vence (France), Fondation Marguerite et Aimé Maeght, from July 8th to September 30th 1978, no. 220
1987 Alberto Giacometti, Berlin (Germany), Nationalgalerie, from October 9th 1987 to January 3rd 1988, no. 120
1988 Alberto Giacometti, Stuttgart (Germany), Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, from January 29th to March 20th 1988, no. 120
1990 Alberto Giacometti. Dibujo. Escultura. Pintura, Madrid (Spain), Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, from November 14th 1990 to January 15th 1991, no. 100
1991 Alberto Giacometti. Sculptures. Peintures. Dessins, Paris (France), Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, from November 30th 1991 to March 15th 1992, no. 134
1998 La Magie des arbres, Riehen, Bâle (Switzerland), Fondation Beyeler, from November 21st 1998 to April 5th 1999, no. 33

Chagall Giacometti Matisse Modigliani, London : Brook Street Gallery, 1967, cat. no. 9
James LORD, Dessins d'Alberto Giacometti, Paris : Editions Seghers, 1971, cat. no. 50, p. 118, ill. p. 119
Reinhold HOHL, Alberto Giacometti, Lausanne : La Guilde du Livre, Lausanne, 1971, cat. no. 77, p. 310, ill. p. 296
Jacques DUPIN, Alberto Giacometti, Saint-Paul-de-Vence : Fondation Marguerite et Aimé Maeght, 1978, cat. no. 220, p. 201
Angela SCHNEIDER, Alberto Giacometti, Munich : Buchhandelsausgabe Prestel Verlag, 1987, cat. no. 120, p. 234, ill. p. 234
Kosme Maria de BARANANO, Alberto Giacometti. Dibujo. Escultura. Pintura, Barcelona : Lunwerg Editores S.A., 1990, cat. no. 100, p. 284, ill. p. 285
Suzanne PAGE (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti. Sculptures. Peintures. Dessins, Paris : Paris-Musées, 1991, cat. no. 134, p. 234, ill. p. 234
Alberto Giacometti 1901-1966, London : Royal Academy of Arts, 1996 / Edimbourg : Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland, 1996, p. 32, pl. 35, ill. p. 32
Christoph DOSWALD, Patrick ELLIOTT, Toni STOOSS (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti 1901-1966, Stuttgart : Verlag Gerd Hatje, 1996, p. 63, ill. p. 63
Patrick ELLIOTT, Toni STOOSS, Alberto Giacometti 1901-1966, Edimbourg : Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland, 1996, p. 32, pl. 35, ill. p. 32
La Magie des arbres, Riehen, Bâle : Fondation Beyeler, 1998, cat. no. 33, p. 160, pl. 16, ill. p. 19
Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper, New York, NY : Christie's New York, 2008, lot no. 604, p. 146-147, ill. p. 147