Fondation Giacometti

This drawing is linked to a very large series of works made with a lithographic pencil on transfer paper in 1951. At the time, Giacometti, about to open his first monograph exhibition at the Galerie Maeght in Paris, was working on a series of lithographs to illustrate the issue of the magazine Derrière le miroir that the gallery owner was to publish alongside the exhibition. Perhaps on the instigation of the gallery owner-publisher, Giacometti drew numerous compositions for a project for a book that was never published. Eight of these drawings are kept at the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul, but the biggest part, that has remained unpublished, was kept by the artist, who offered some to his friends. This “Walking man”, offered to Giorgio Soavi, as he recounted in his book “Il mio Giacometti”, is in keeping with that series. The man represented is outlined with a few strokes that take in his face and represent the eyes and mouth, while from the body only projects the hands, the feet and the line of the shoulders. This extreme reduction in the economy of the stroke gives the figure a character both evanescent and very dynamic, like the sudden appearance of a silhouette coming out of the fog.

Signed and dated with a ballpoint pen at the bottom right corner "Alberto Giacometti 1951."

Giorgio SOAVI
Sale Sotheby's Milan Milan (Italy), April 21st, 2009, lot n ° 26

1999 Alberto Giacometti. Disegni, sculture e opere grafiche, Bologne (Italy), Museo Morandi, no. 23
2000 I Giacometti. La valle, il mondo, Milan (Italy), Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, from February 13th to May 14th 2000
2005 Alberto Giacometti. Percorsi lombardi, Sondrio (Italy), Museo Valtellinese di Storia e Arte, from January 20th to April 22nd 2005, no. 27

Giorgio SOAVI, Il mio Giacometti, Con due disegni e fotografie inedite, Milan : All'insegna del Pesce d'oro, 1966
Giorgio SOAVI, Protagonisti. Giacometti. Sutherland. De Chirico, Milan : Longanesi & C., 1969, p. 13, ill. p. 13
Giorgio SOAVI, Disegni di Giacometti, Milan & Rome : Editoriale Domus, 1973, cat. no. [44]
Giorgio SOAVI, Dessins de Giacometti, Rome : Franca May Edizioni, 1980, cat. no. [44]
Alberto Giacometti. Disegni, sculture e opere grafiche, Milan : Edizioni Gabriele Mazzotta, 1999 / Bologne : Museo Morandi, 1999, cat. no. 23, p. 143, ill. p. 96
Pietro BELLASI, Marco OBRIST, Chasper PULT, I Giacometti. La valle, il mondo, Milan : Edizioni Gabriele Mazzotta, 2000, p. 210, ill. p. 210
Casimiro DI CRESCENZO, Franco MONTEFORTE, Alberto Giacometti. Percorsi Lombardi, Sondrio : Fondazione Gruppo Credito Valtellinese, 2005, cat. no. 27, p. 416, ill. p. 190
Giorgio Soavi Collezionista, Milan : Sotheby's Milan, 2009, lot no. 26, p. 38, ill. p. 38