3056 - AUGUSTO GIACOMETTI

AUGUSTO GIACOMETTI (Stampa 1877–1947 Zurich) Roses. 1920. Oil on canvas. Monogrammed and dated lower left: a.g. 1920. Signed and dated on the reverse: Augusto Giacometti 1920. 24 × 27.5 cm. Provenance: - Klipstein & Kornfeld Auction, Bern, June 4–7, 1957. - Private collection, Switzerland. Exhibited: Probably Zurich 1921, Special Exhibition Augusto Giacometti, Kunstsalon Wolfsberg, February–March 1921, no. 7, as “Roses.” Literature: Michael Egli, Denise Frey, and Beat Stutzer: Augusto Giacometti. Catalogue raisonné, ed. Swiss Institute for Art Research, Zurich 2023, vol. I, p. 393, no. 159 (ill.). Augusto Giacometti’s 1920 still life “Rosen” is a rediscovery. The authors of the catalogue raisonné published in 2023 had access only to a black-and-white illustration in the 1957 auction catalogue, and the painting’s whereabouts were unknown. The painting is closely related to two other still lifes of roses from the same year (catalogue raisonné nos. 157 and 158). As in those works, Giacometti focuses on the flowers and the effects of their colors. Against a dark background suffused with deep greens and blues, brilliant red roses bloom on the left, balanced by a group of pale, whitish-yellow blossoms on the right. Leaves and stems unite the two groups of colors in a dense, rhythmically structured composition. From 1916 onward, Giacometti increasingly devoted himself to floral still lifes, which became one of his favorite subjects. During his studies in Paris between 1897 and 1901, he had already explored plant forms and their ornamental qualities under the influence of his teacher Eugène Grasset. In his floral still lifes, however, he was less concerned with faithfully representing nature than with the possibilities of painting itself. In this work, too, the outlines dissolve in places, while the thickly applied paint gives the blossoms an almost sculptural presence. The strong reds and greens contrast with the pale flowers; when viewed up close, individual brushstrokes and patches of color appear almost abstract. As in many of his floral still lifes, the illusion of pictorial space gives way here to a predominantly planar composition shaped by color and brushwork. The painting’s particular appeal lies in the tension between representation and abstraction.