Fondation Giacometti

In 1954, Giacometti delivered several painted and sculpted portraits of his wife, very precisely depicted and unusually realistic, this being one of them. Annette’s delicate anatomy is perfectly readable and her face as well as her hair easily identifiable. Indeed the work was exhibited for the first time in bronze at the Venice Biennale in 1962, with the title “Annette dal vero” (“Annette from life”). That year, Giacometti won the Grand Prize for sculpture. In this piece the fundamental unity of Giacometti’s work is visible: painting, drawing and sculpture. The whole figure stands out with the sharpness of a drawing in space. The lines that go over the figure evoke the brush touches of the paintings representing Annette standing naked in the studio in that same year. This piece was cast in bronze by the artist from 1954 onwards, and the edition carried on after his death. In 2009, 10 castings existed, on a possible legal edition of 12.

Signed and numbered at the bottom to its proper left "Alberto Giacometti 00/6"

Annette GIACOMETTI
Succession Alberto et Annette Giacometti
Sale Ader Tajan Paris (France), July 11th, 1994, lot n ° 6
Sale Christie's London London (United Kingdom), February 4th, 2009, lot n ° 13
Private collection

Alberto Giacometti. 14 sculptures-4 peintures dépendant de la Succession d'Annette Giacometti, Paris : Ader Tajan, 1994, lot no. 6, p. n.p., pl. 6
Impressionist / Modern. Evening sale, London : Christie's London, 2009, lot no. 13