Fondation Giacometti

Early on, in his father’s studio, Alberto Giacometti practised drawing, creating still life works, copies from book illustrations, and portraits of his family. This portrait of his mother was executed with a rather soft black pencil on a thick drawing paper that has served as support for countless drawings from the time of the artist’s youth. The face of the artist’s mother, three-quarter face, is leaning forward, eyes cast down, as if she was captured in an activity, as can be seen on other drawings where she is concentrating on a sewing or cooking activity. The artist, who was only 14 at the time, already knew how to capture the face with much talent, how to draw its main features and characteristics, and how to make a portrait that also owed undoubtedly to the observation of the portraitist activity of his father, the painter Giovanni Giacometti, of which a few paintings and drawings representing his spouse have been kept. The date and signature were fixed a long time ago, perhaps just after the execution of the drawing, bearing witness to the importance that the young Alberto already gave to the practise of drawing. That didn’t stop him making, at the back of the drawing, a more childish sketch representing a soldier. The drawing used to belong to Maurice Lefebvre-Foinet, who was Alberto Giacometti’s supplier of canvas and painting materials.

Signed and dated with a pencil at the bottom right corner "A. Giacometti 1915"

Private collection
Sale Christie's France SNC Paris (France), December 1st, 2009, lot n ° 55

1978 Alberto Giacometti, Saint-Paul-de-Vence (France), Fondation Marguerite et Aimé Maeght, from July 8th to September 30th 1978, no. 188

James LORD, Dessins d'Alberto Giacometti, Paris : Editions Seghers, 1971, cat. no. 2
Jacques DUPIN, Alberto Giacometti, Saint-Paul-de-Vence : Fondation Marguerite et Aimé Maeght, 1978, cat. no. 188, p. 199
Art Impressionniste et Moderne, Paris : Christie's France SNC, 2009, lot no. 55, p. 48, ill. p. 48