ALBERTO GIACOMETTI | "GRANDE FEUILLE, VERSION FINE" FLOOR LAMP

Countess Mona von Bismarck, circa 1945

Sotheby's London, December 2, 1987, lot 250

Private Collection

Christie's New York, December 18, 2007, lot 759

Michel Butor and Jean Vincent, Diego Giacometti, Paris, 1985, p. 107 

Léopold Diego Sanchez, Jean-Michel Frank, Paris, 1997, pp. 166, 169

Pierre-Emmanuel Martin-Vivier, Jean-Michel Frank: Un Décorateur dans le Paris des Années 30, Paris, 2009, p. 65

James Buresh, Jean-Michel Frank in Argentina, New York, 2010, p. 28

Laure Verchère, Jean-Michel Frank, New York, 2018, pp. 78, 188

This lot is offered together with a certificate of authenticity from the Comité Giacometti and it is recorded in the Alberto Giacometti database under number 545.

The present floor lamp designed by Alberto Giacometti for Jean-Michel Frank is enriched by its illustrious provenance, having once belonged to international socialite Mona von Bismarck. Von Bismarck was a fixture in the avant-garde artistic circles of her time. She was photographed by Cecil Beaton, Edward Steichen and Horst P. Horst, and was immortalized by Salvador Dalí in an iconic painting (offered at Sotheby’s London in 2013). Her husband’s fortune gave Mona free rein to pursue her love of the arts. She purchased works by Francisco Goya, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Jean-Honoré Fragonard to furnish the homes that she owned in New York, Paris and Capri, where she entertained guests such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Winston Churchill, Aristotle Onassis and Maria Callas. She also worked with contemporary decorators, such as José Maria Sert and Syrie Maugham, to decorate her houses. While she did not directly rely upon the services of Jean-Michel Frank, who passed away in 1941, von Bismarck certainly found inspiration in the pieces commissioned by Jean-Michel Frank to Alberto Giacometti, such as this “Grande Feuille” model that she acquired soon after the Second World War.