Fondation Giacometti

A black pen and ink drawing, with vibrant lines that adhere to the contours and linger on the face, this work represents a sculpture made by Alberto Giacometti in 1951, the Bust of Diego with turtleneck, and remained on a low piece of furniture for a long time, under the artist’s eyes, who made several drawings of it. This work appears in several photographs of the interior of the studio at the time, as well as on a few lithographs produced in 1951 and published in 1954 by Maeght. The model of this sculpture is Diego, Alberto’s brother, who is, with the artist’s wife Annette, Giacometti’s main model. With numerous strokes, Giacometti insists on the outlines of the bust, while a big frame, that follows the edges of the sheet of Rives vellum paper reminds us of the big frames in which Giacometti’s lithographs were placed at the time. The underlining of the lips and the eyelids is reminiscent of the effect Giacometti obtained by applying, with a paintbrush, paint strokes on an original plaster of the same era (today kept at the Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, Zurich) to reinforce the presence of the work. Several similar drawings are known, among them some date from 1952 and others from 1953 (AGD 15 and AGD 608), the dating, made here with a pencil, probably having been added, as is often the case in Giacometti’s work, subsequent to the execution of the drawing. This drawing, which has not been exhibited or reproduced in the artist’s lifetime, used to belong to an artist friend of Giacometti to whom he had given it, the painter Roger Montandon, who took several photographs of Alberto painting, and of this Bust of Diego with turtleneck in 1952, that perhaps corresponds to the date of the gift and would explain the date of 1952 added in pencil next to the signature.

Signed and dated with a pencil at the bottom right corner "Alberto Giacometti 1952"

Roger MONTANDON
Private collection
Sale Christie's New York New York, NY, May 5th, 2010, lot n ° 236
Private collection

2004 Six leading sculptors and the human figure, Rodin. Bourdelle. Maillol. Brancusi., Athens (Greece), Cultural Olympiad, National Gallery-Alexandros Soutzos Museum, from June 9th to September 30th 2004, no. V.26

James LORD, Dessins d'Alberto Giacometti, Paris : Editions Seghers, 1971, cat. no. 68, p. 154, ill. p. 155
Marina LAMBRAKI-PLAKA, Six leading sculptors and the human figure, Rodin. Bourdelle. Maillol. Brancusi. Giacometti. Moore, Athens : Cultural Olympiad, National Gallery-Alexandros Soutzos Museum, 2004, cat. no. V.26
Impressionist/Modern Works on Paper and Day Sale, New York, NY : Christie's New York, 2010, lot no. 236, p. 84-85