Lot 3051 - A217 Art Suisse - vendredi, 26. juin 2026, 14h00
GIOVANNI GIACOMETTI
(Stampa 1868–1933 Glion)
Nebbia. 1912.
Oil on canvas.
Monogrammed lower right: G.G.
85 × 80 cm.
Provenance:
- Private collection, Switzerland, acquired in the above gallery in 1918.
- Private collection, North America, 1924.
- Auction Christie's Zurich, 27 May 2013, lot 95.
- Private collection, Switzerland, acquired at the above auction.
Exhibited:
Literature:
- Paul Müller and Viola Radlach: Giovanni Giacometti. Werkkatalog der Gemälde, Zurich 1997, vol. II-2, p. 580, no. 1912.45.
The present work depicts the garden in Stampa opposite the artist’s birthplace on a winter’s day. The subject of the domestic garden appears in numerous variations throughout the oeuvre of Giovanni Giacometti and ranks among his recurring subjects. In this depiction, however, it receives a particularly compelling interpretation: a cold winter’s day on which the garden is enveloped in a mysterious violet mist.
The mist bathes trees and climbing plants in a delicate pink light that causes the snow to appear in unusual colouring, while the yellow wall in the foreground creates an effective contrast. The atmospheric effect of mist, a central element within Giacometti’s oeuvre, is here strikingly staged and recurs in numerous of his works. In a letter to Cuno Amiet from March 1912, Giacometti praised the persistent mist in Stampa: ‘One learns, through its permanence, to perceive many charms within it, and one comes to believe that the mist is in fact even more beautiful than the brutal sunshine.’
The painting exemplifies Giacometti’s artistic aim of exploring the interplay of light and colour and transforming it into an independent pictorial language. The garden depicted still exists today in Stampa, albeit in a slightly reduced form.
The mist bathes trees and climbing plants in a delicate pink light that causes the snow to appear in unusual colouring, while the yellow wall in the foreground creates an effective contrast. The atmospheric effect of mist, a central element within Giacometti’s oeuvre, is here strikingly staged and recurs in numerous of his works. In a letter to Cuno Amiet from March 1912, Giacometti praised the persistent mist in Stampa: ‘One learns, through its permanence, to perceive many charms within it, and one comes to believe that the mist is in fact even more beautiful than the brutal sunshine.’
The painting exemplifies Giacometti’s artistic aim of exploring the interplay of light and colour and transforming it into an independent pictorial language. The garden depicted still exists today in Stampa, albeit in a slightly reduced form.
CHF 200 000 / 300 000 | (€ 206 190 / 309 280)
Vendu pour CHF 561 000 (frais inclus)