Bidspirit auction | GIACOMETTI ALBERTO: (1901-1966) ´ It

GIACOMETTI ALBERTO: (1901-1966) ´ It gives me great pleasure that these two marbles should enter your collection´ - GIACOMETTI ALBERTO: (1901-1966) Swiss sculptor. A fine A.L.S., Alberto Giacometti , three pages, 8vo, Paris, 16th October 1956, to [David] Thompson, the prominent art collector, in French. Giacometti thanks his correspondent for their letter and photographs of the Beyeler marbles in Basel and continues to remark ´ Ces deux marbres sont tres differents l´un de l´autre mais ils sont fait a peu pres a la meme epoque, et ce sont des marbres originaux. Celui de Madame Doesburg etait a la Galerie Pierre; je ne me rapelle plus du tout a qui j´ai vendu celui de Beyeler. Celui de Beyeler est le meme sujet que le marbre du musee d´Amsterdam mais il est tres different´ (Translation: ´the same time, and they are original marbles. Madame Doesburg's was at the Galerie Pierre; I can't remember who I sold Beyeler's to. The Beyeler is the same subject as the marble in the Amsterdam museum, but it is very different´ ). The sculptor further writes ´ Ca me fait grand plaisir que ces deux marbres entrent dans votre collection. Et je vous remercie infiniment pour tout ce que vous faites pour mon travail et qui me touche beaucoup. C´est une tres grande joie pour moi´ (Translation: ´ It gives me great pleasure that these two marbles should enter your collection. And thank you very much for all you do for my work, which means a lot to me. It is a great joy for me´ ) before concluding ´ Je travaille beaucoup et j´espere d´arriver a avoir quelque chose de nouveau´ (Translation: ´ I'm working hard and I hope to come up with something new´ ). In a postscript to the third page Giacometti provides brief details regarding the dates of the two marble sculptures. A letter of excellent content and good association. VG G. David Thompson (1899-1965) American investment banker, industrialist and modern art collector who owned seventy works by Giacometti as well as others by Paul Klee, Marc Chagall, Jean Dubuffet and other artists. The Madame Doesburg Femme and Galerie Beyeler Tête qui regarde marbles are today housed in the Alberto Giacometti Stiftung in Switzerland. The Amsterdam museum marble referred to in the letter, also known as Tête qui regarde, today remains in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum. 1956 was a productive year for Alberto Giacometti; a fortnight earlier, he had finished representing France at the Venice Biennale (1 June - 1 October 1956) and, as the present letter demonstrates, he was working to ‘come up with something new’. Giacometti was thus plunging into what would later be called the ‘Yanaihara Crisis’, a very important artistic phase in his life. Isaku Yanaihara, a professor of French philosophy at Osaka University, met Giacometti in 1956. Giacometti was fascinated by Yanaihara's face and began a long series of paintings and sculptures of his likeness. He first produced an oil painting in October 1956 and numerous other drawings, paintings and sculptures followed. Yanaihara posed for the artist every summer in 1957, 1959, 1960 and 1961.