Lot 225 D

Usually the drawings of sculptors are of special interest because they represent the initial idea on the path to finding a three-dimensional form. However, Giacometti did not make any formally preparatory sketches for his sculptures, instead, he created numerous drawings based on the sculptures in his studio. As Giacometti's biographer James Lord explains, he was an obsessive draughtsman: “The subject matter of Giacometti's drawings was always provided by the features of those closest to him, by the familiar household objects of his studio and home [...]. He was very particular about his materials, and at the same time curiously nonchalant, too. He liked hard pencils, 3H or 4H, and was fastidious about keeping a sharp point on them at all times. For the majority of his most important drawings, Giacometti did use pencils, but he also at times used a pen or lithographic crayon [...]. Of the hundreds of drawings done away from the studio [...] a certain number were rescued by his wife and by friends [...]. Some of these are among the most vivid and interesting of all his works, because they are utterly spontaneous, executed what was in his eye or mind's eye. Consequently, these drawings, which are for the most part rapid sketches, sometimes reveal the man even more vividly than those drawings which he executed with greater deliberation.” (James Lord, Alberto Giacometti: Drawings, New York/Greenwich 1971, pp. 21ff.)
The three motifs are thus very typical of Alberto Giacometti's work as, on the one hand, they depict his often-portrayed brother Diego in the studio, surrounded by sculptures and paintings, in addition to directly presenting two sculptural works: The bust “Diego” (AGD 1269), which features a high and narrow head and stands for his work almost in the sense of a trademark, has here been ingeniously set down on the sheet by means of a few simple lines; and the clay bozzetto for “Le Chien” (AGD 747), which rests on a modelling stand within a wider studio scene, this figure taking in the scents surrounding it and following a trail, with its head lowered and with its typically slender and elongated physiognomy. A cast of this famous bronze, which was also created in 1951, can, for example, be found in the Fondation Maeght in St Paul de Vence (see comparative illus.). Three drawings of such opulence and of motifs so important to Giacometti's oeuvre on a single sheet of paper of this format are rare.