Exhibition:
Hanover 1966, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Alberto Giacometti. Zeichnungen, cat. no. 66

Condition:
On strong wove paper (papier vélin). Upper right corner neatly added. With lightstruck and a few spots. With mounting remnants on the back.


Silvio Berthoud was born on 10 October 1936, the birthday of his uncle Alberto. His mother Ottilia died a few hours later after giving birth – a deeply sad caesura in the life of the artist family. The whole Giacometti family stood by the newborn at the time: Bruno, his mother’s youngest brother, and his wife Odette were the godparents, and his grandmother Annetta immediately left her beloved Stampa to join her son-in-law in Geneva for a while and to look after her grandson. Silvio was the only grandchild of Giovanni and Annetta Giacometti. Alberto also spent a lot of time with his nephew, who often sat as a model for his uncle. From 1942 to 1945, Alberto stayed in Geneva after fleeing from Paris. He produced drawings, paintings and bronzes with Silvio’s portrait. This drawing shows the 19-year-old Silvio, whose head Alberto composes in his typical manner of countless layers of strokes, while the body remains very sketchy