3070 - AUGUSTO GIACOMETTI

AUGUSTO GIACOMETTI (Stampa 1877–1947 Zurich) Iris. 1946. Oil on canvas. Monogrammed lower right: a.g. Signed, dated and inscribed verso: AUGUSTO GIACOMETTI 1946 ‘Schwertlilien’ (crossed out) ‘Iris’. 66.5 × 67 cm. Provenance: - Auction Philips Son & Neale SA, Zurich, 18 March 2002, lot 101. - Private collection, Switzerland, acquired at the above auction. Exhibited: Zurich 1947, Zürcher Maler. Paul Bodmer, Augusto Giacometti, Wilhelm Gimmi, Max Gubler, Hermann Huber, Karl Hügin, Reinhold Kündig, Otto Morach, Ernst Morgenthaler, Albert Pfister, Ernst Georg Rüegg, Alexander Soldenhoff, Alfred Marxer, Johann von Tscharner, Kunsthaus Zürich, 8 May – 4 June 1947, no. 66, as ‘Iris’. Literature: - Augusto Giacometti: Manuscript catalogue raisonné, 1890, p. 110, as ‘Iris, 1946’. - Exhibition catalogue Zürcher Maler. Paul Bodmer, Augusto Giacometti, Wilhelm Gimmi, Max Gubler, Hermann Huber, Karl Hügin, Reinhold Kündig, Otto Morach, Ernst Morgenthaler, Albert Pfister, Ernst Georg Rüegg, Alexander Soldenhoff, Alfred Marxer, Johann von Tscharner, Zurich 1947, p. 10, no. 66. - Arnoldo Marcelliano Zendralli: ‘Da Firenze a Zurigo. Augusto Giacometti’, in: Quaderni grigionitaliani, 1947/48, no. 17, p. 107, as ‘Iridi’. - Arnoldo Marcelliano Zendralli: ‘Appendice’, in: Da Firenze a Zurigo. Pagine di ricordi, Poschiavo 1948, p. 114, as ‘Iridi’. - Hans Hartmann: Augusto Giacometti. Pionier der abstrakten Malerei. Ein Leben für die Farbe, Chur 1981, p. 260, no. 2108, as ‘Iris’. - Michael Egli, Denise Frey and Beat Stutzer: Augusto Giacometti. Catalogue raisonné, ed. Swiss Institute for Art Research, Zurich 2023, vol. I, p. 607, no. 492 (ill.). This work by Augusto Giacometti dates from the final phase of his career and was painted just one year before his death. During the Second World War, public commissions became increasingly scarce, leaving the artist more dependent on private patrons. His flower still lifes were particularly popular, not least for their luminous colours and meticulous execution. Throughout much of his career, Giacometti had explored colour and its effects with great intensity, at times approaching the threshold of abstraction. In his final years, however, his style underwent a transformation. In these flower still lifes, now rendered in an almost naturalistic manner, the nuanced treatment of light and shadow assumed increasing importance.