Femme Debout by Giacometti
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Giacometti Giacometti 1947-53 The Woman Sculpture
Chronology : 1948 1950-1959 1950 1952 1955 1958 1976
See also : Giacometti Giacometti 1947-53 The Woman Sculpture
Chronology : 1948 1950-1959 1950 1952 1955 1958 1976
1948 Grande Figure
2017 SOLD for £ 18M by Sotheby's
After the war, Alberto Giacometti creates and operates his own universe through the sculpture. He establishes rules that he will remarkably respect in his later work : man is walking, woman is still.
Man is walking with energy but nobody knows why, not even the character. The energy of his step is useful, or not. He is fragile. The woman is waiting and passive. She however must have a role, like the tree in the forest.
Alberto moves back in his Parisian studio which had been carefully maintained by Diego. His life is stabilized by his meeting with Annette. He wants to exhibit through his sculptures his own view about the human nature, close to Sartre's existentialism.
The seminal story of his new creativity takes place immediately after the war, tentatively in 1945. He goes to the cinema in Montparnasse. On the boulevard, he sees men walking and women standing. Everyone knows the reason for his or her immediate action, which is not accessible to others. A crowd is a gathering of lonely characters. Alberto is no longer inspired by cinema, which is nothing more than a projection of light on a screen. He decides that his art will be closer to real life.
He creates his world in 1947 with characters as threadlike as the barrels of the lamps which he produced before the war for Jean-Michel Frank.
His threadlike characters are both fragile in their bodies and solid in their bronze. These humans are not identifiable but the original plaster tirelessly kneaded by the artist's hand brings them a tormented texture that resembles their creator.
Pierre Matisse is seduced but cannot wait. Alberto achieves in 1947 in a hurry which is not his usual practice his primordial trilogy dominated by L'Homme au doigt (the man with the finger). The other two elements are L'Homme qui marche (the walking man) with his compass shaped legs prophesying the imbalance of the future, and his opposite the Femme debout (Standing woman).
L'homme au doigt will never reappear, like the Godot of his friend Beckett. Other figures are created as well as groups, busts and limbs. From 1948 he tries some variations of attitude such as L'Homme qui marche sous la pluie or L'Homme qui chavire. They are as ephemeral as L'Homme au doigt, because they do not deal with the mystery of the solitude of the individual in the group.
The attitude of the frail and stoic woman will be maintained throughout Alberto's career as if this perfectionist artist had at first found how to express the timeless woman. With her strictly joined legs she is inspired from the Egyptian anthropomorphic coffins. Gilt or perched on a chariot to be worshiped, she is the mother goddess of Alberto's surrealist pantheon.
On June 21, 2017, Sotheby's sold for £ 18M Grande Figure, a bronze 1.30m high in a patina of dark gold color, lot 57. Cast as a unique copy by the Alexis Rudier company in Paris in 1948 from a plaster dated 1947, it is one of the earliest large size examples of Alberto's standing woman.
Man is walking with energy but nobody knows why, not even the character. The energy of his step is useful, or not. He is fragile. The woman is waiting and passive. She however must have a role, like the tree in the forest.
Alberto moves back in his Parisian studio which had been carefully maintained by Diego. His life is stabilized by his meeting with Annette. He wants to exhibit through his sculptures his own view about the human nature, close to Sartre's existentialism.
The seminal story of his new creativity takes place immediately after the war, tentatively in 1945. He goes to the cinema in Montparnasse. On the boulevard, he sees men walking and women standing. Everyone knows the reason for his or her immediate action, which is not accessible to others. A crowd is a gathering of lonely characters. Alberto is no longer inspired by cinema, which is nothing more than a projection of light on a screen. He decides that his art will be closer to real life.
He creates his world in 1947 with characters as threadlike as the barrels of the lamps which he produced before the war for Jean-Michel Frank.
His threadlike characters are both fragile in their bodies and solid in their bronze. These humans are not identifiable but the original plaster tirelessly kneaded by the artist's hand brings them a tormented texture that resembles their creator.
Pierre Matisse is seduced but cannot wait. Alberto achieves in 1947 in a hurry which is not his usual practice his primordial trilogy dominated by L'Homme au doigt (the man with the finger). The other two elements are L'Homme qui marche (the walking man) with his compass shaped legs prophesying the imbalance of the future, and his opposite the Femme debout (Standing woman).
L'homme au doigt will never reappear, like the Godot of his friend Beckett. Other figures are created as well as groups, busts and limbs. From 1948 he tries some variations of attitude such as L'Homme qui marche sous la pluie or L'Homme qui chavire. They are as ephemeral as L'Homme au doigt, because they do not deal with the mystery of the solitude of the individual in the group.
The attitude of the frail and stoic woman will be maintained throughout Alberto's career as if this perfectionist artist had at first found how to express the timeless woman. With her strictly joined legs she is inspired from the Egyptian anthropomorphic coffins. Gilt or perched on a chariot to be worshiped, she is the mother goddess of Alberto's surrealist pantheon.
On June 21, 2017, Sotheby's sold for £ 18M Grande Figure, a bronze 1.30m high in a patina of dark gold color, lot 57. Cast as a unique copy by the Alexis Rudier company in Paris in 1948 from a plaster dated 1947, it is one of the earliest large size examples of Alberto's standing woman.
1949 La Place
2008 SOLD for $ 14.6M by Christie's
People may live at the same place. This does not mean that they will communicate with each other. In 1948 Giacometti expresses this paradox in his first sculptures with multiple figures, desperately trying to find a logical order of the humanity.
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In 1948 he positions together on a tray several copies of his walking man, like a child playing with tin soldiers. The Trois Hommes qui marchent are produced in two versions, identified I and II (grand plateau and petit plateau respectively). The three characters approach or move away from each other. Compared with the petit plateau, the grand plateau provides the illusion of an open and non claustrophobic scenery.
With Les Trois hommes qui marchent, the lack of communication leads to collision. La Place is also prepared in two versions. The movements cease to be incoherent : a group is being formed. These four works provide the most genuine response to the artist's existentialist quest.
The four men and the unique woman of La Place play their comedy on a rectangular platform 62 cm long. They are small and scattered, giving an impression of great void. It is easy to recognize among them the most iconic silhouette of all Alberto's characters, L'Homme qui marche.
One from six bronzes of La Place I cast by Alexis Rudier company in 1948 was sold for $ 13M by Sotheby's on May 7, 2014.
La Place II, conceived in 1948, pushes the same five characters close to one edge of the 67 cm long platform. The standing woman is attracting three walking men on her left and one man on her right. Cast in 1949, the number 1/6 was sold for $ 14.6M by Christie's on May 6, 2008, lot 32. It has a brown and black patina.
The bronzes of such difficult figures with several thin characters were feats by the Alexis Rudier foundry.
.
In 1948 he positions together on a tray several copies of his walking man, like a child playing with tin soldiers. The Trois Hommes qui marchent are produced in two versions, identified I and II (grand plateau and petit plateau respectively). The three characters approach or move away from each other. Compared with the petit plateau, the grand plateau provides the illusion of an open and non claustrophobic scenery.
With Les Trois hommes qui marchent, the lack of communication leads to collision. La Place is also prepared in two versions. The movements cease to be incoherent : a group is being formed. These four works provide the most genuine response to the artist's existentialist quest.
The four men and the unique woman of La Place play their comedy on a rectangular platform 62 cm long. They are small and scattered, giving an impression of great void. It is easy to recognize among them the most iconic silhouette of all Alberto's characters, L'Homme qui marche.
One from six bronzes of La Place I cast by Alexis Rudier company in 1948 was sold for $ 13M by Sotheby's on May 7, 2014.
La Place II, conceived in 1948, pushes the same five characters close to one edge of the 67 cm long platform. The standing woman is attracting three walking men on her left and one man on her right. Cast in 1949, the number 1/6 was sold for $ 14.6M by Christie's on May 6, 2008, lot 32. It has a brown and black patina.
The bronzes of such difficult figures with several thin characters were feats by the Alexis Rudier foundry.
1950 La Clairière
2018 SOLD for $ 15.8M by Christie's
In 1950 Pierre Matisse asks for a new exhibition which will confirm the great success of the previous one in 1947. It is necessary to include new works but Alberto had not found a satisfactory answer concerning human communication. He will never find any. What to do ?
In his studio Alberto has multiplied the individual figures with mostly standing women in a gradually increasing elongation. Suddenly he looks at the mess of his studio as a whole. The sculptures had been divided into small groups without any voluntary intervention. He will accordingly create artworks without modifying this assembly of chance.
Alberto has another vision : his women are so stretched that they look like trees. He creates La Forêt (the forest) and La Clairière (the glade).
Compared with the earlier groups, the figures remain on their bases but the uniqueness of scale is canceled. The limbs are united with the body like for a standing woman but the head is still outlined at the top of the tree. Not only each character is alone, but in addition he is nothing.
La Forêt features a weird group of six character-trees of various heights accompanied by a small bust of Diego. A bronze 58 cm high cast in 1950 by Alexis Rudier was sold for $ 13.2M by Christie's on May 7, 2002, lot 34.
La Clairière, 59 cm high on a surface of 65 x 52 cm, is the most complex with nine standing women and less mystic because it does not include the idol bust of Diego. A copy cast by Alexis Rudier company between 1950 and 1952 was sold for $ 15.8M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on May 15, 2018, lot 17 A.
In his studio Alberto has multiplied the individual figures with mostly standing women in a gradually increasing elongation. Suddenly he looks at the mess of his studio as a whole. The sculptures had been divided into small groups without any voluntary intervention. He will accordingly create artworks without modifying this assembly of chance.
Alberto has another vision : his women are so stretched that they look like trees. He creates La Forêt (the forest) and La Clairière (the glade).
Compared with the earlier groups, the figures remain on their bases but the uniqueness of scale is canceled. The limbs are united with the body like for a standing woman but the head is still outlined at the top of the tree. Not only each character is alone, but in addition he is nothing.
La Forêt features a weird group of six character-trees of various heights accompanied by a small bust of Diego. A bronze 58 cm high cast in 1950 by Alexis Rudier was sold for $ 13.2M by Christie's on May 7, 2002, lot 34.
La Clairière, 59 cm high on a surface of 65 x 52 cm, is the most complex with nine standing women and less mystic because it does not include the idol bust of Diego. A copy cast by Alexis Rudier company between 1950 and 1952 was sold for $ 15.8M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on May 15, 2018, lot 17 A.
1951-1952 Le Chariot
2014 SOLD for $ 101M by Sotheby's
Alberto Giacometti had been close to the Surrealists. The theme of the woman on the chariot was inscribed in his mind from 1938. It remained therein for twelve years during which the artist tried a few tests, sometimes with rotating wheels.
In 1948, Alberto populates his universe with his wire-like characters who question the existentialism. Men walk with energy without knowing where they are going. In contrast, women are straight and motionless.
The woman is still an ancient idol whose authority may not be challenged. She brings peace and truth. In Alberto's dream, she is perched on a pedestal placed on the axle of an antique chariot with very high wheels. This is the great paradox of Giacometti : the motionless woman symbolizes the movement because she is worshiped on the chariot.
Alberto is a perfectionist. He waits until 1950 to execute his fantasy. Any detail is important, such as the tightly attached legs. The arms are away from the body in a gesture of glory or freedom, but the angle of the elbows disappears when the sculpture is viewed from front. The work is of medium size, 1.45 m high, because it must not be intimidating or diminutive.
The bronze cast in 1951-1952 is a technical feat by Alexis Rudier company. The number 2/6 was sold for $ 101M by Sotheby's on November 4, 2014, lot 25. This is an exceptional specimen by its golden patina that glorifies the subject and also because it has been carefully painted by the artist.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
In 1948, Alberto populates his universe with his wire-like characters who question the existentialism. Men walk with energy without knowing where they are going. In contrast, women are straight and motionless.
The woman is still an ancient idol whose authority may not be challenged. She brings peace and truth. In Alberto's dream, she is perched on a pedestal placed on the axle of an antique chariot with very high wheels. This is the great paradox of Giacometti : the motionless woman symbolizes the movement because she is worshiped on the chariot.
Alberto is a perfectionist. He waits until 1950 to execute his fantasy. Any detail is important, such as the tightly attached legs. The arms are away from the body in a gesture of glory or freedom, but the angle of the elbows disappears when the sculpture is viewed from front. The work is of medium size, 1.45 m high, because it must not be intimidating or diminutive.
The bronze cast in 1951-1952 is a technical feat by Alexis Rudier company. The number 2/6 was sold for $ 101M by Sotheby's on November 4, 2014, lot 25. This is an exceptional specimen by its golden patina that glorifies the subject and also because it has been carefully painted by the artist.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1955 Femme qui marche
2022 SOLD for € 27M by Christie's
The post war masterpieces by Alberto Giacometti have their root in Surrealism. In 1932 he prepares a life size plaster of a headless Femme qui marche, without arms like a sort of fashion mannequin. He then uses it to try some surrealist figures by adding non human artifacts in the place of the missing limbs and head. Breton broke with Alberto in 1935.
That Femme qui marche is in a full nudity. The elongated profile with a leg slightly ahead of the other for walking may be a reminiscence of the antique Egyptian art. The smooth texture does not anticipate the hectic post war kneading. She is altogether a precursor of the femme debout, of the homme qui marche and of the woman on the chariot.
Four bronzes plus one artist's proof of that seminal Femme qui marche (I) 150 cm high were cast in 1955 in an english foundry at the request of a gallery owner in London. The number III/IV, 150 cm high with a dark brown patina, was sold for € 27M by Christie's on June 14, 2022, lot 20 in the sale of the Givenchy collection.
That Femme qui marche is in a full nudity. The elongated profile with a leg slightly ahead of the other for walking may be a reminiscence of the antique Egyptian art. The smooth texture does not anticipate the hectic post war kneading. She is altogether a precursor of the femme debout, of the homme qui marche and of the woman on the chariot.
Four bronzes plus one artist's proof of that seminal Femme qui marche (I) 150 cm high were cast in 1955 in an english foundry at the request of a gallery owner in London. The number III/IV, 150 cm high with a dark brown patina, was sold for € 27M by Christie's on June 14, 2022, lot 20 in the sale of the Givenchy collection.
1958 Femme de Venise
2022 SOLD for $ 25M by Christie's
After various stagings alone or in groups amidst walking men, the standing woman survives the existentialism.
In 1956 retrospective exhibitions of Alberto's work are planned in Venice and Bern. He reacts like a real great artist. His past is not essential but the long march of a creative process that is not finished. He decides to do something new.
He chooses the figure of the nude woman standing still, feet together. He will show that this model allows a subtle variation in the expression of feelings. He will not do it as portraits but as his interpretation of the ideal woman. The most important is the texture that brings realism to non-proportioned bodies.
On a single armature, Alberto kneads the clay. He does not want to be influenced excepted by his own emotions which may change every next day. When finally satisfied, he leaves it to Diego who casts the plaster, releasing the frame for the next job. It is an art to be touched, admired by Genet.
About fifteen female figures are created in this intense process. Ten plasters are accepted, and divided between the two exhibitions in Bern and Venice. The group of nine is first displayed together in 1958 at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York.
The plaster is not the final state of the project because it does not have the expressive possibilities of bronze. Nine women are edited in small series : five of them were in the group of Venice, two in Bern and two had not been exhibited. The set is now known under the generic name of Femmes de Venise, I to IX. They are different one another. For example, I and IV are the more anatomical while II, III, VII and IX are more abstract.
The bronzes listed below were cast by Susse in Paris.
On May 6, 2014, Christie's sold at lot 33 for $ 12.7M the number 2/6 of La Femme de Venise IV, 115 cm high, cast in bronze by Susse in 1957 and painted by Alberto.
La Femme de Venise IV has the specific feature of arms well freed from the body. Elbows are turned behind and accentuate the curving of the back, providing a physical presence and an authoritative look that the other Femmes do not have.
Giacometti knows that the lack of coloring of a sculpture is a decadence of modern art in comparison to ancient, medieval or tribal art. That number 2/6 has a unique feature. It came back into the hands of the artist who painted the genital area in flesh color amidst the overall gray-green patina.
The Femme de Venise III number 5/6, 1.18 m high, cast in 1958 with a brown and green patina, was sold for $ 25M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 32.
A Femme de Venise VIII cast in 1957, 1.22 m high, was sold for $ 10.1M by Sotheby's on May 7, 2008, lot 20.
In 1956 retrospective exhibitions of Alberto's work are planned in Venice and Bern. He reacts like a real great artist. His past is not essential but the long march of a creative process that is not finished. He decides to do something new.
He chooses the figure of the nude woman standing still, feet together. He will show that this model allows a subtle variation in the expression of feelings. He will not do it as portraits but as his interpretation of the ideal woman. The most important is the texture that brings realism to non-proportioned bodies.
On a single armature, Alberto kneads the clay. He does not want to be influenced excepted by his own emotions which may change every next day. When finally satisfied, he leaves it to Diego who casts the plaster, releasing the frame for the next job. It is an art to be touched, admired by Genet.
About fifteen female figures are created in this intense process. Ten plasters are accepted, and divided between the two exhibitions in Bern and Venice. The group of nine is first displayed together in 1958 at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York.
The plaster is not the final state of the project because it does not have the expressive possibilities of bronze. Nine women are edited in small series : five of them were in the group of Venice, two in Bern and two had not been exhibited. The set is now known under the generic name of Femmes de Venise, I to IX. They are different one another. For example, I and IV are the more anatomical while II, III, VII and IX are more abstract.
The bronzes listed below were cast by Susse in Paris.
On May 6, 2014, Christie's sold at lot 33 for $ 12.7M the number 2/6 of La Femme de Venise IV, 115 cm high, cast in bronze by Susse in 1957 and painted by Alberto.
La Femme de Venise IV has the specific feature of arms well freed from the body. Elbows are turned behind and accentuate the curving of the back, providing a physical presence and an authoritative look that the other Femmes do not have.
Giacometti knows that the lack of coloring of a sculpture is a decadence of modern art in comparison to ancient, medieval or tribal art. That number 2/6 has a unique feature. It came back into the hands of the artist who painted the genital area in flesh color amidst the overall gray-green patina.
The Femme de Venise III number 5/6, 1.18 m high, cast in 1958 with a brown and green patina, was sold for $ 25M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 32.
A Femme de Venise VIII cast in 1957, 1.22 m high, was sold for $ 10.1M by Sotheby's on May 7, 2008, lot 20.
1958 Femme Leoni
2020 SOLD for $ 26M by Sotheby's
An unused plaster 1.67 m high surfaced in 1956 in an exhibition in Bern alongside several Femmes de Venise. It is believed to be an interpretation of Isabel Rawsthorne prepared in 1947.
This model was edited in 1957 after a rework by Alberto to improve stability. The first bronze was supplied to Peggy Guggenheim for her Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice. A copy cast in 1958 of this Femme Leoni was sold for $ 26M by Sotheby's on October 28, 2020, lot 112.
This model was edited in 1957 after a rework by Alberto to improve stability. The first bronze was supplied to Peggy Guggenheim for her Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice. A copy cast in 1958 of this Femme Leoni was sold for $ 26M by Sotheby's on October 28, 2020, lot 112.
1961 Grande Femme Debout
2008 SOLD for $ 27.5M by Christie's
Alberto Giacometti was enthusiastic about the project of decoration of the plaza in front of the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York which was entrusted to him in 1958 and which could be the culmination of his artistic approach whole life. He will install his monumental sculptures according to the design of his Places I and II of 1948 simulating by scattered characters the buzzing activity of the city.
His figures will not be new : the walking man, the standing woman and the big head. Refusing obstinately the solution of a mechanical enlargement, he works to establish new proportions that will allow his statues not to be miniaturized by the 60 floors of the bank nor to seem huge to the passers-by.
Alberto does not yet know New York. After many trials in plaster and bronze, he is discouraged by his own belief of the gigantism of the city and renounces the project in 1960. He does not however scrap everything. Four Grande Femme Debout, two Homme qui marche and one Tête de Diego are preserved. The Homme qui marche I in life size 1.83 m high is hardly higher than the Homme au doigt from 1947 but it remains one of the best symbols of the vision of the humanity by Giacometti.
The walking man is the most emblematic conception by Giacometti. The symmetrical stride is a mark for energy, ambition and desire. The bronze provides an idea of solidity contradicted by the slender lines of the character. He comes from nowhere and goes nowhere. He is alone, as the "foreigner" of Camus.
It was edited in bronze the following year, 1961, by Susse in six numbered copies for trade and four artist's proofs. The serial number 2/6 was sold for £ 65M by Sotheby's in 2010
Alberto first visited New York City in October 1965. Suffering from cancer since 1963 he at last appreciated when it was too late how he could have integrated his ultimate work within Manhattan. He conceived an even taller sculpture and put Diego in charge of preparing the big frame but this project was stopped by his own death.
With her 2.75 m tall, the Grande Femme Debout II is the giant who dominates the whole group of the 1960 project for the New York piaza. The number 1/6 cast by Susse in 1961 was sold for $ 27.5M by Christie's on May 6, 2008, lot 36.
A Grande femme debout I was sold for $ 13M by Christie's in New York on November 8, 2000.
His figures will not be new : the walking man, the standing woman and the big head. Refusing obstinately the solution of a mechanical enlargement, he works to establish new proportions that will allow his statues not to be miniaturized by the 60 floors of the bank nor to seem huge to the passers-by.
Alberto does not yet know New York. After many trials in plaster and bronze, he is discouraged by his own belief of the gigantism of the city and renounces the project in 1960. He does not however scrap everything. Four Grande Femme Debout, two Homme qui marche and one Tête de Diego are preserved. The Homme qui marche I in life size 1.83 m high is hardly higher than the Homme au doigt from 1947 but it remains one of the best symbols of the vision of the humanity by Giacometti.
The walking man is the most emblematic conception by Giacometti. The symmetrical stride is a mark for energy, ambition and desire. The bronze provides an idea of solidity contradicted by the slender lines of the character. He comes from nowhere and goes nowhere. He is alone, as the "foreigner" of Camus.
It was edited in bronze the following year, 1961, by Susse in six numbered copies for trade and four artist's proofs. The serial number 2/6 was sold for £ 65M by Sotheby's in 2010
Alberto first visited New York City in October 1965. Suffering from cancer since 1963 he at last appreciated when it was too late how he could have integrated his ultimate work within Manhattan. He conceived an even taller sculpture and put Diego in charge of preparing the big frame but this project was stopped by his own death.
With her 2.75 m tall, the Grande Femme Debout II is the giant who dominates the whole group of the 1960 project for the New York piaza. The number 1/6 cast by Susse in 1961 was sold for $ 27.5M by Christie's on May 6, 2008, lot 36.
A Grande femme debout I was sold for $ 13M by Christie's in New York on November 8, 2000.
1976 Femme de Venise (posthumous)
2022 SOLD for $ 17.6M by Sotheby's
A posthumous Femme de Venise II cast in 1976, 122 cm high, was sold for $ 17.6M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 26. This piece numbered 0/6 had certainly been made for the use of Alberto's widow Annette who was its first owner. II is the second highest Femme of the group of nine.
1980-1981 Grande Femme Debout (posthumous)
2017 SOLD for € 25M by Christie's
The Grande Femme Debout is the subject of a posthumous re-edition in 1980-1981 also by Susse in seven copies plus two artist's proofs for Annette Giacometti and plus one for the Fondation Maeght. One of the épreuves d'artiste was sold for € 25M by Christie's on October 19, 2017, lot 8.
