FRENCH SCULPTURE CENSUS / RÉPERTOIRE DE SCULPTURE FRANÇAISE
GIACOMETTI, Alberto Borgonovo, Switzerland 1901 - Coire, Switzerland 1966
Maker: Fiorini Foundry, London
Femme qui marche [I] Walking Woman [I] 1932, verrsion of 1936, cast in 1955 bronze
statue
7 7 59 ?16 x 4 ?16 x 15 in. on the right side of base: ALBERTO GIACOMETTI on the back of base: IV/IV
Acc. No.: 64.520 Credit Line: Major Henry Lee Higginson and William Francis Warden Funds
Photo credit: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston © Artist :
Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts www.mfa.org
Provenance
1936, London, the plaster original was sold to Sir Roland Penrose, who sold it to Valerie Cooper 1955, London, Valerie Cooper sold the plaster original to the Hanover Gallery which commissioned an edition of 4 bronze casts from Fiorini's Foundry(London) 1964, April 8, sold by Hanover Gallery to the MFA, Major Henry Lee Higginson and William Francis Warden Funds Bibliography
Museum's website, 16 February 2012 and 20 March 2012
1962 Dupin Jacques Dupin, Alberto Giacometti, Paris, 1972, p. 218
1965 Burlington "Giacometti's 'Femme Qui Marche'", The Burlington Magazine, June 1965, p. 338
1970 Huber Carlo Huber, Alberto Giacometti, Lausanne, 1970, p. 40, repr.
1972 Hohl Reinhold Hohl, Alberto Giacometti: Sculpture Painting Drawing, London, 1972, p. 103-104, p. 138-139, p. 300, p. 70, repr.
1981 Ronald Alley Ronald, Catalogue of The Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than works by British Artists. London, The Tate Gallery in association with Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1981, p. 276- 277
Exhibitions
1965-1966 New York/Chicago/Los Angeles/San Francisco Alberto Giacometti, organized by Peter Selz, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, June 9- october 12, 1965; The Art Institute of Chicago, November 5-December 12, 1965; The Los Angeles County Museum, January 6-February 14, 1966; The San Francisco Museum of Art, March 10- April 24, 1966
1974 New York Alberto Giacometti: A Retrospective Exhibition, New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1974, no. 29
1981-1982 Toronto Gauguin to Moore: Primitivism in Modern Sculpture, Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, November 7, 1981-January 3, 1982, no. 105, p.238, p. 237, repr.
1986 Framingham Henri Michaux/Alberto Giacometti, Framingham, MA, April 20-June 15, 1986
1996 Edinburgh Alberto Giacometti 1901-1966, Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland, 1996, no. 76, p. 149, repr.
1998 Montreal Alberto Giacometti, organized by Pierre Théberge, Montréal, The Museum of Fine Arts, June 18- October 18, 1998, no. 24, p. 41, repr.
2001 Pittsburgh Exhibition, Pittsburgh, Alcoa Foundation, May 2001
2001-2002 Zurich/New York Alberto Giacometti, Kunsthaus Zurich, May 18-September 2, 2001; New York, The Museum of Modern Art, October 11, 2001-January 3, 2002, no. 59, p. 110, p.114, repr.
2005 Nagoya Faces of History, Nagoya, Museum of Fine Arts, March 19-September 25, 2005
Related works
Plaster, 1936, Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Museum. Bronze, 1936, Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Museum. Bronze, 1966, London, Tate Gallery, marked "Epreuve Tate Gallery". Bronze, 1936, Stockholm, Moderna Museet, numbered II/IV.
Comment
Museum's website, 24 June 2011: Slim, almost flat, headless and armless with elongated legs, left foot slightly forward, on rectangular base with beveled sides. The formal and elongated, almost abstract, walking pose of this bronze reflects Giacometti's interest in traditional African art, as well as his fascination with ancient Egyptian sculpture. This work is one of Giacometti's earliest explorations of the walking figure, a central theme in his later sculptures.