Fondation Giacometti

Annetta Giacometti, Alberto's mother (1871-1964) was the model for several of Giacometti's works: from drawings made in his youth – in which she is represented alone or with other members of the family – to paintings and sculptures during the artist's more mature period. After spending the war years in Geneva, Annetta returned to the family home in Stampa that Alberto visited every summer on his return from Paris. It was here, or in the area around Maloja, that Giacometti made most of his mother's portraits. Though one of the most famous of Annetta's portraits dates from 1937, it's mainly from the end of the forties that Giacometti began to regularly use his mother as a model.
In this painting, dated 1949 by the artist in the right lower corner, Annetta is represented in the main room in the house in Stampa, sitting in front of the door, hands placed on her legs. Brown and red tones characterize the model and the architectural ensemble that surrounds her; very neat white strokes depict the details of the face and body.
Though Bruno Giacometti and James Lord thought they could recognize fifty years later in this painting a portrait of Elzevia Michel-Baldini (cousin of Annetta), nothing permits us to question the title under which the painting was bought by the Contemporary Art Society in 1949, at a time when there were enough connoisseurs and friends of Giacometti in England to appreciate the subject of the painting and eventually question the artist on that subject.

Signed and dated with a paintbrush at the bottom right corner "Alberto Giacometti 1949"

Contemporary Art Society
City of Manchester Art Galleries

1981 Giacometti. Sculptures. Paintings. Drawings, Manchester (United Kingdom), from January 10th to February 21st 1981, no. 42
1981 Giacometti. Sculptures. Paintings. Drawings, London (United Kingdom), Serpentine Gallery, from April 10th to May 17th 1981, no. 42
1990 La mamma a Stampa - Annetta gesehen von Giovanni und Alberto Giacometti, Zurich (Switzerland), Kunsthaus Zürich, from December 1st 1990 to February 24th 1991, no. 80
1996 Alberto Giacometti 1901-1966, Vienne (Austria), Kunsthalle, from February 24th to May 5th 1996, no. 140
1996 Alberto Giacometti 1901-1966, Edimbourg (United Kingdom), Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, from June 1st to September 22nd 1996, no. 123

Giacometti. Sculptures. Paintings. Drawings, London : Arts Council of Great Britain, 1981, cat. no. 42, p. 48, ill. p. 49
Gottfried BOEHM, Christian KLEMM, La Mamma a Stampa, Annetta. Gesehen von Giovanni und Alberto Giacometti, Coire : Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur, 1990 / Zurich : Kunsthaus, 1990, cat. no. 80, p. 180, ill. p. 137
Patrick ELLIOTT, Toni STOOSS, Alberto Giacometti 1901-1966, Edimbourg : Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland, 1996, cat. no. 123, p. 163, ill. p. 37