DIEGO GIACOMETTI | PAIRE DE CHENETS DOMPTEUSE

Hervé Chayette and Laurence Calmels, Drouot, 1987, lot 22

Private collection, Switzerland (purchased at the above sale by the present owner)

Françoise Francisci, Diego Giacometti, catalogue de l’œuvre, Paris, 1985, no. 43, ill.

Daniel Marchesseau, Diego Giacometti, Paris, 1986, pp. 59-60, ill.

Diego Giacometti, Möbel und Objekte aus Bronze, exhibition catalogue, Museum Bellerive, Zurich, 1988, p. 80, no 49a, ill.

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Denis Vincenot.

Diego Giacometti began working with his brother Alberto for the decorator Jean-Michel Franck. His career spanned 50 years terminating with a major commission for the Musée Picasso in Paris. Diego spent the war years in Geneva, returning afterwards to Paris. During the last twenty-five years of his life he made a large number of tables, consoles, fire-irons, and lamps from his studio in Montparnasse. These were mostly made on commission from collectors who were also friends of the artist.

Diego often used the motif of the female tamer for lamp bases and table feet; a bust length chimera figure with a falcon on her shoulder accompanied by an owl and a leopard. Influenced by antique classical art as well as the alpine landscapes of his childhood, far from the artistic conventions of his time, Diego created his own universe, which is both magical and personal and in which he perfectly mastered the scale of his figures. He was a precursor in his use of bronze for furniture; previously it had been reserved for sculpture and decorative art. Diego lived in the shadow of his more famous brother, Alberto, even to the point that he did not consider himself a sculptor.