Live Auction 7859Impressionist/Modern Day Sale
Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966)
Lot 380 PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE SWISS COLLECTION

Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966)

Tête de femme (Flora Mayo)

Closed24 June 2010

Price Realised

GBP 82,850

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Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966)
Tête de femme (Flora Mayo)
signed, numbered and inscribed with the foundry mark 'Alberto Giacometti 6/8 Susse Fondeur Paris' (on the back of the base)
bronze with green patina
Height: 11 7/8 in. (30.2 cm.)
Conceived in 1927; this bronze version cast at a later date

Anonymous sale, Christie's, Geneva, 29 March 1993, lot 325.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Specialist note

The present work portrays Flora Lewis Mayo, a young American heiress from Colorado who came to Paris in 1925. Like Giacometti, she studied sculpture with Bourdelle at the elder master's atelier on the rue Grande-Chaumière and in 1927 Giacometti and Mayo made portraits of each other in plaster. Giacometti's plaster displays his interest at that time in primitive art, and marks an important step in the artist's evolution from the realistic representation of the figure towards a greater sense of formal freedom.