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. 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, like “L’Arbre” (AGD 848), 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. The work apparently has never been exhibited nor published in the artist’s lifetime. It was offered by the artist in November 1962 to Giorgio Soavi, who evokes the memory of this gift in a text that was published the year following Giacometti’s death.

Signed and dated with a ballpoint pen at the bottom right corner "Alberto Giacometti 52"

Giorgio SOAVI
Private collection
Sale Sotheby's Milan Milan (Italy), April 21st, 2009, lot n ° 25
Sale Sotheby's London London (United Kingdom), February 9th, 2011, lot n ° 182

1970 Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), Rome (Italy), Villa Medici, from October 24th to December 18th 1970
1983 23 disegni. 150 litografie per Paris sans fin di Alberto Giacometti, Milan (Italy), Galleria Librex, from 4th to November 24th 1983
2000 I Giacometti. La valle, il mondo, Milan (Italy), Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, from February 13th to May 14th 2000
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, no. 112
2005 Alberto Giacometti. Percorsi lombardi, Sondrio (Italy), Museo Valtellinese di Storia e Arte, from January 20th to April 22nd 2005, no. 28

Giorgio SOAVI, Protagonisti. Giacometti. Sutherland. De Chirico, Milan : Longanesi & C., 1969, p. 68, ill. p. 68
Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), Rome : De Luca Editore, 1970, cat. no. 14, p. 33, ill. p. non paginé
Giorgio SOAVI, Disegni di Giacometti, Milan & Rome : Editoriale Domus, 1973, cat. no. [47]
Giorgio SOAVI, Dessins de Giacometti, Rome : Franca May Edizioni, 1980, cat. no. [47]
23 disegni. 150 litografie per Paris sans fin di Alberto Giacometti, Milan : Galleria Librex, 1983, p. 13, ill. p. 13
Osvaldo PATANI, 23 disegni. 150 litografie per Paris sans fin di Alberto Giacometti, Milan : Galleria Librex, 1983, p. 13, ill. p. 13
I Giacometti. La valle, il mondo, Milan : Edizioni Gabriele Mazzotta, 2000, p. 208, ill. p. 208
Pietro BELLASI, Marco OBRIST, Chasper PULT, I Giacometti. La valle, il mondo, Milan : Edizioni Gabriele Mazzotta, 2000, p. 208, ill. p. 208
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. 112, p. 149
Casimiro DI CRESCENZO, Franco MONTEFORTE, Alberto Giacometti. Percorsi Lombardi, Sondrio : Fondazione Gruppo Credito Valtellinese, 2005, cat. no. 28, p. 416, ill. p. 190
Giorgio Soavi Collezionista, Milan : Sotheby's Milan, 2009, lot no. 25, p. 37, ill. p. 37
Impressionist & Modern Art. Day Sale, London : Sotheby's London, 2011, lot no. 182, p. 121, ill. p. 121