Fondation Giacometti

Started in the Thirties, the vast collection of Robert Sainsbury (1906-2000) includes, next to the Chinese, African and Polynesian sculptures, a great number of contemporary artists such as Epstein, Moore and Bacon. Lord Sainsbury and his wife Lisa started to buy Giacometti’s works in 1949, after meeting the artist in Paris, through the gallery owner Pierre Loeb. Giacometti made several portraits of Sainsbury, as well as of his wife and their two children. In this one, the bust and face have first been drawn with a black paintbrush. The light grey used after for the jacket and the background contrasts with the darker one of the face that is, as in most of Giacometti’s portraits, the most detailed part. A big portion of the painting has been left blank, and the colour of the background is concentrated around the head, the centre of the portrait. It is indeed a real portrait, in so far as the artist lingers on the physical specificities of his model: the shape of the skull, the glasses with thick rims, the baldness. Though this painting is not dated, it is quite likely it was made during the same sitting as another portrait very similar to this one and dated 1958. In those two portraits, the pose of the model with his arms crossed is the same, even though this one is painted at a closer distance than the other. It seems that this painting was never exhibited in Giacometti’s lifetime.

No inscription

Annette GIACOMETTI
Succession Alberto et Annette Giacometti
Fondation Giacometti

2006 Alberto Giacometti, Kamakura (Japan), The Museum of Modern Art, from June 3rd to July 30th 2006, no. II-32
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Kobe (Japan), Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, from August 8th to October 1st 2006, no. II-32
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Sakura (Japan), Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, from October 10th to December 3rd 2006, no. II-32
2008 Alberto Giacometti, Rotterdam (Netherlands), Kunsthal, from October 18th 2008 to February 8th 2009, no. 115
2011 Alberto Giacometti. Una retrospectiva. Colección de la Fundación Alberto y Annette Giacometti, Malaga (Spain), Museo Picasso, from October 17th 2011 to February 5th 2012
2012 Alberto Giacometti. Coleção da Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, Paris, Sao Paulo (Brazil), Pinacoteca do estado, from March 24th to June 17th 2012
2012 Alberto Giacometti. Coleção da Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, Paris, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Museu de Arte Moderna, from July 17th to September 16th 2012
2015 Alberto Giacometti, Istanbul, Tepebasi-Beyoglu-Istanbul, PERA MUSEUM, from February 10th to April 26th 2015
2016 Alberto Giacometti. Rétrospective, Rabat (Morocco), Musée Mohammed VI, from April 20th to September 4th 2016
2022 Sophie Ristelhueber, Paris, Institut Giacometti, from September 27th to November 30th 2022

Véronique WIESINGER, Toshio YAMANASHI (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti, Tokyo : The Tokyo Shimbun, 2006, cat. no. II-32, p. 56, ill. p. 56
Véronique WIESINGER, Charlotte VAN LINGEN (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti, Harderwijk : D'jonge Hond, 2008, cat. no. 115, ill. p. 150
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), Giacometti, Sao Paulo : Cosac & Naify Ediçoes, 2012, ill. p. 372
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti. A Retrospective, Barcelona : Ediciones Poligrafa, 2012 / Malaga : Museo Picasso, 2012, ill. p. 4eme de couverture, 34
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti. Una retrospectiva, Barcelona : Ediciones Poligrafa, 2012 / Malaga : Museo Picasso, 2012, ill. p. 4eme de couverture, 34