A Ming-style blue and white bowl, Daoguang six-character seal mark in underglaze-blue and of the period (1821-1850). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2014.

The bowl has gently rounded sides rising from a tapered foot. The exterior is delicately painted with three groups of fruiting branches bearing peaches, pomegranate and melons, set between a band of classic scrolls at the rim and a lappet band surrounding the foot. The interior is decorated with further peaches to the centre, with a band of classic scrolls at the rim. 6 ? in. (15.4 cm.) diam. Estimate£10,000 – £15,000 ($16,880 - $25,320)

Provenance: Christie's London, 11 May 2010, lot 222.

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 13 May 2014, London, King Street - http://www.christies.com/

A pair of Ming-style blue and white 'Lotus' dishes, Daoguang six-character seal marks in underglaze-blue and of the period (1821-1850). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2014.

Each dish is potted with shallow rounded sides, with the interior painted with three lotus flowers surrounded by leafy scrolls. The exterior is similarly decorated with further lotus flowers. 6 ? in. (15.5 cm.) diam. Estimate£8,000 – £12,000 ($13,504 - $20,256)

Provenance: Offered at Christie's Hong Kong, 4 November 1996, lot 768.

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 13 May 2014, London, King Street - http://www.christies.com/

A blue and white bowl, Daoguang six-character seal mark in underglaze-blue and of the period (1821-1850). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2014.

The bowl is potted with deep rounded sides rising to a flaring rim, supported on a short foot. The exterior is painted in bright shades of cobalt-blue with sanskrit characters interspersed with leaf-shaped panels of foliage. The interior is similarly decorated, with further sanskrit characters encircling the mouth. 7 ? in. (18.1 cm.) diam. Estimate£8,000 – £12,000 ($13,504 - $20,256)

Notes: See a similarly decorated bowl in the British Museum, illustrated by Sir Harry Garner, Oriental Blue and White, London, 1970, pl. 82B.

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 13 May 2014, London, King Street - http://www.christies.com/

A blue and white 'Peony' bowl, Daoguang six-character seal mark in underglaze-blue and of the period (1821-1850). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2014.

The bowl has tall rounded sides rising to a flaring rim, supported on a short foot. The exterior is painted in bright shades of cobalt-blue to depict a band of peony flowers with leafy scrolls. 6 ½ in. (16.5 cm.) diam. Estimate£4,000 – £6,000 ($6,752 - $10,128)

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2010, lot 2789.

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 13 May 2014, London, King Street - http://www.christies.com/

A sapphire and diamond ring, by Tiffany & Co. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2014.

Set with a cushion-shaped sapphire in an old-mine cut diamond surround, mounted in gold, ring size 6¼. Signed Tiffany & Co. Estimate CHF40,000 – CHF50,000 ($45,683 - $57,104)

Accompanied by report no. 66105 dated 6 December 2012 from the SSEF Swiss Gemmological Institute stating that the sapphire is of Kashmir origin, with no indications of heating

Report no. 14030048 dated 13 March 2014 from the Gübelin GemLab stating that the sapphire is of Kashmir origin, with no indications of heating

Christie's. GENEVA MAGNIFICENT JEWELS, 14 May 2014, Geneva - http://www.christies.com/

A sapphire and diamond ring, by Meister. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2014.

Set with a cushion-shaped sapphire, weighing approximately 14.85 carats, to the brilliant-cut and marquise-shaped diamond surround, mounted in gold, ring size 7. Signed EM for Meister. Estimate CHF25,000 – CHF35,000 ($28,552 - $39,973)

Accompanied by report no. 55747 dated 13 April 2010 from the SSEF Swiss Gemmological Institute stating that the sapphire is of Ceylon origin, with no indications of heating

Christie's. GENEVA MAGNIFICENT JEWELS, 14 May 2014, Geneva - http://www.christies.com/

Alberto Giacometti (1901 – 1966), La Place. Photo Sotheby's.

Inscribed with the signature A. Giacometti, with the foundry mark Alexis Rudier Fondeur Paris and numbered 4/6. Bronze. Length: 24 1/2 in., 62.2 cm. Conceived and cast in 1948. Estimation 12,000,000 — 18,000,000 USD

Provenance: Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York (acquired from the artist)
Morton G. Neumann, New York (acquired from the above on March 12, 1951)
Morton F. Neumann Family Collection (sold: Sotheby's, New York, May 10, 2000, lot 37)
Acquired at the above sale

Exposition: Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie, Alberto Giacometti, 1970-71, illustrated in the catalogue p. 89
London, Thomas Gibson Fine Art Ltd., Alberto Giacometti: Thirteen Bronzes, 1970, illustrated in the catalogue p. 25
New York, Solomon Guggenheim Museum, Alberto Giacometti, 1974, illustrated in the catalogue p. 89
Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester, Giacometti: Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings, 1981 (this exhibition was also shown in Bristol and London), illustrated in the catalogue p. 26
Zürich, Kunsthaus & New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Alberto Giacometti, 2001-02, illustrated in the catalogue p. 161

Litterature: Andrew Carnduff Ritchie, Sculpture of the Twentieth Century, New York, 1952, p. 211
Ernest Scheidegger, Alberto Giacometti – Schriften, Fotos, Zeichnungen, Zürich, 1958, illustration of another cast p. 108
Jacques Dupin, Alberto Giacometti, Paris, 1963, illustration of another cast p. 243
Edward B. Henning, Fifty Years of Modern Art, 1916-1966, Cleveland, 1967, p. 106
Franz Meyer, Alberto Giacometti, Stuttgart, 1968, illustration of another cast pp. 156 & 166
Carlo Huber, Alberto Giacometti, Lausanne, 1970, p. 73
Bernard Lamache-Vadel, Alberto Giacometti, Paris, 1984, illustration of another cast p. 128
Angelica Zandar Rudenstine, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice & New York, 1985, illustration of another cast pp. 352-354
Herbert Matter, Alberto Giacometti, New York, 1987, illustration of another cast p. 59
Edward Dinsenberg, Film noir and the Spaces of Modernity, Cambridge, 2004, illustration of another cast p. 116
Timothy Mathews, Alberto Giacometti, The Art of Relation, London, 2014, illustration of another cast p. 228

La Place, Giacometti's first multi-figural sculpture, is one of the most powerful representations of psychological isolation and vulnerability.  Reconciling the quiet life of the mind with the cacophony of urban existence was of central concern to the Existentialist movement in post-war France, and Giacometti was at the forefront in his investigation of this dilemma.  In the years after the war Giacometti became fascinated by spatial relationships and the concept of movement within a single work.  He began to create sculptures that employed multiple figures on a common base, all existing as independent entities during a moment in time.  Without question, La Place is the most provocative of Giacometti's sculptural interpretations of this concept and was the font of inspiration that he would draw upon for the rest of his life.

La Place was conceived in an urban context.  The platform on which the figures are positioned relates to a city square, and the juxtaposition of figures suggests the way in which isolated city dwellers pass without stopping or interacting.  The male figures appear to stride forward, while the female figure stands still.  "A bit like ants, each one seems to move of its own accord, alone, in a direction ignored by the rest"  is how Giacometti described the urban phenomenon portrayed in his sculpture.  "They meet, pass close by each other, don't they? Without either seeing or looking at one another.  Or else they revolve around a woman.  A motionless woman, and four men who are walking in relation to the women, more or less.  I realised that I can only make women who are still and men who are walking.  The women I make are motionless and the men I make are always walking."

Over the next two decades Giacometti would reinterpret these figures in his best known works, from Homme qui marche to the the nine Femmes de Venise.  Walking men and motionless women became the main characters in his drama of humanity, and his identity as an artist became inextricably linked with these images.  The scale of his figures in La Place, unlike those in his sculptures from the 1950s or 1960s, is said to be a result of his experience transporting his belongings in a matchbox following the war and his fascination with perspective as shaped by cinematic experiences.

Referring to the new perception of people and the space surrounding them that informs the present composition, Giacometti recounted that, upon leaving a cinema in 1945, he suddenly felt that "people seemed like a completely foreign species, mechanical... mindless machines, like men in the street who come and go... a bit like ants, each one going about his own business, alone ignored by the others. They crossed paths, passed by, without seeing each other, without looking... In the street people astound and interest me more than any sculpture or painting. Every second the people stream together and go apart, they approach each other to get closer to one another. They unceasingly form and reform living compositions in unbelievable complexity... " (quoted in Pierre Schneider, 'Ma longue marche par Alberto Giacometti', in L'Express, Paris, 8th June 1961, pp. 48-50).

Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) Femme de Venise V. Photo Sotheby's.

Inscribed with the signature Alberto Giacometti, stamped with the foundry mark Susse Fondeur Paris and numbered 3/6. Bronze. Height: 43 1/2 in., 110.6 cm. Conceived in 1956 and cast in 1958. Estimation 6,000,000 — 8,000,000 USD

Provenance: Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York
Private Collection (acquired from the above on November 22, 1960 and sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 7, 2001, lot 27)
Acquired from the above sale

Exposition: Vienna, Albertina Museum, Goya bis Picasso. Meisterwerke der Sammlung Jan Krugier und Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski,2005, no. 169, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Das Ewige Auge - Von Rembrandt bis Picasso. Meisterwerke aus der Sammlung Jan Krugier und Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 2007, no. 221, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Litterature: XXVIII Esposizione Bienniale Internazionale d'Arte (exhibition catalogue), Padiglioni delle Nazioni (France), Venice, 1956, no. 112, another cast listed
Giacometti, Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings (exhibition catalogue), Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1958
Peter Selz, Alberto Giacometti (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New-York ; The Art Institute of Chicago; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, 1965, no. 53, illustration of another cast p. 69
Franz Meyer, Alberto Giacometti: Eine Kunst Existentiellert Wirklichkeit, Stuttgart, 1968, p. 196
Reinhold Hohl, Alberto Giacometti, Stuttgart, 1971, listed p. 142
Alberto Giacometti (exhibition catalogue), Fondation Maeght, St.-Paul-de-Vence, 1978, no. 89, illustration of another cast p. 102
David Sylvester, Giacometti Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings, London, 1981, no. 23, illustration of another cast p. 32
Giacometti, Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings (exhibition catalogue), Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester; City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery; Serpentine Gallery, London, 1981, no. 23, illustration of another cast p. 52
James Lord, Alberto Giacometti : a Biography, New York, 1985, discussed pp. 355 and 485
Alberto Giacometti, Sculpturen, Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Graphik (exhibition catalogue), Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin; Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1987-88, no. 182, illustration of another cast p. 274
Herbert & Mercedes Matter, Alberto Giacometti photographié par Herbert Matter, Paris, 1987, illustration of another cast pp. 118 and 120
Yves Bonnefoy, Alberto Giacometti, Biographie d'une oeuvre, Paris, 1991, no. 375, illustration of another cast p. 400
Alberto Giacometti, Sculptures, Peintures, Dessins, Musée d'Art Moderne, Fondation Basile et Elise Goulandris, Andros, 1992, no. 73, illustration of another cast p. 123
Angela Schneider, Alberto Giacometti, Sculpture, Paintings, Drawings, New York, 1994, illustration of another cast pls.108-114
Thierry Dufrêne, Alberto Giacometti : Les Dimensions de la réalité, Geneva, 1994, discussed p. 168
Alberto Giacometti 1901-1966 (exhibition catalogue), Kunsthalle, Vienna, 1996, no. 218, illustration of another cast p. 78
David Sylvester, Looking at Giacometti, London & New York, 1997, discussed pp. 85 and 117
Jean Soldini, Alberto Giacometti: La Somiglianza intovabile, Milan, 1998, illustration of another cast p. 136
Christian Klemm, Alberto Giacometti (exhibition catalogue), Kunshaus, Zürich; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2001-02, no. 161, illustration of another cast p. 221

"I keep coming back to these women... around them space vibrates," the writer Jean Genet once said of the seminalFemmes de Venise.  The present sculpture is number five of Giacometti's celebrated series of nine standing figures of a female nude, collectively known as the Femmes de Venise. These standing women are perhaps Giacometti's best known works, regarded by many as the artist's most significant contribution to art of the 20th century.  

Of the nine figures, number five is among the more naturalistic.  The form is only one of three in which the arms hang freely distinguishable by the space between the arms and torso that accentuates the figure's cinched torso.  The series originates from a group of ten plasters which Giacometti had produced between January and May 1956 in preparation for the concurrent exhibitions of his work at the Venice Biennale and at the Kunsthalle in Bern in June of that year.  According to recent scholarship by Véronique Wiesinger, six of the plasters were exhibited in Venice as "works in progress" and four were shown in Bern.  Giacometti eventually selected nine of these plasters for casting into bronze in editions of six, plus one artist's proof of each figure.  Regardless of where they were exhibited, each of the nine bronzes is called Femme de Venise.

Genet, who was Giacometti's favorite living author, provided a sensually-evocative descripion of these figures in the essay he published in 1957: "I can't stop touching the statues:  I look away and my hand continues its discoveries of its own accord: neck, head, nape of neck, shoulders... The sensations flow to omy fingertips.  Each one is different, so that my hand traverses an extremely varied and vivid landscape... The backs of these women may be more human than their fronts.  The nape of the neck, the shoulders, the small of the back, the buttocks seem to have been modeled more lovingly than any of the fronts.  Seen from three-quarters, this oscillation from woman to goddess may be what is most disturbing: sometimes the emotion is unbearable... I cannot help returing to this race of gilded and sometimes painted sentries who standing erect, motionless, keep watch" (reprinted in R. Howard, ed., The Selected Writings of Jean Genet, Hopewell, 1993, pp. 323-324).

The Femmes de Venise are direct descendants of the elongated female figures which Giacometti had been working on in the 1940s and precursors of the larger female figure that he would execute in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  Created at the median of this artistic development, the Femmes de Venise serve as the summation of Giacometti's findings in this particular subject.  The variations among the nine Femmes, when considered as a group, demonstrate the metamorphoses of Giacometti's vision of the female form.  From a technical standpoint, the differences in height and anatomy suggest that their numbering might not reflect the sequence in which Giacometti produced them.  Valerie Fletcher has suggested that the nine Femmes were randomly renumbered when the artist selected them from among the original plasters for casting into bronze.

This group of sculptures was created as different states of the same female figure, modeled from a single mass of clay on a single armature.  When Giacometti was satisfied with a particular version, his brother Diego made a plaster cast of it while Giacometti continued to rework the clay into a different figure.  "Every time I work I am prepared to undo without the slightest hesitation the work done the day before, as each day I feel I am seeing further," Giacometti explained in an interview with André Parinaud in 1962.  "Basically I now only work for the sensation I get during the process." ("Why am I a Sculptor?" reprinted in A. Gonzalez,Alberto Giacometti, Works, Writings, Interviews, Barcelona, 2006, p. 151).

All of the Femmes de Venise display the thin, gaunt proportions for which Giacometti is best known, and about which he commented to Sylvester in 1964:  "At one time I wanted to hold on to the volume, and they became so tiny that they used to disappear.  After that I wanted to hold on to a certain height, and they became narrow.  But this was despite myself and even if I fought against it.  And I did fight against it;  I tried to make them broader.  The more I wanted to make them broader, the narrower they got.  But the real explanation is something I don't know, still don't know.  I could only know it through the work that I am going to do" (D. Sylvester, Looking at Giacometti, London and New York, 1997, p. 6).

With its disproportionately small head and large feet accentuated by a sloping pedestal, the overall effect of this tall, slender figure is what Lord termed an "ascending vitality" (J. Lord, op. cit., p. 356).  Reflecting on the impression which the Femmes de Venise make upon the viewer, Lord concludes: "When a spectator's attention is fixed upon the head of one of these figures, the lower part of her body would lack verisimilitude were it not planted firmly upon those enormous feet, because even without looking directly at them, one is aware of their mass... The eye is obliged to move up and down, while one's perception of the sculpture as a whole image becomes an instinctual act, spontaneously responding to the force that drove the sculptor's fingers.  Comparable to the force of gravity, it kept those massive feet so solidly set on the pedestal that they affirmed the physicality of the figure as the one aspect of his creativity which the artist could absolutely count on, all the rest being subject to the unreliability of the mind's eye" (ibid., pp. 356-57).

According to Mary Lisa Palmer, Giacometti would usually send the even-numbered bronzes from the edition to Galerie Maeght in Paris and the odd-numbered casts, including the present bronze, to Pierre Matisse in New York.  Matisse maintained a steady correspondence with Giacometti over the course of their professional relationship, and he helped to establish the artist’s reputation in the United States.  Several casts of theFemmes de Venise passed through Matisse’s galleries and into the collections of some of the most prominent patrons of the arts.   

A diamond rivière necklace, by Massoni. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2014.

Designed as a line of graduated brilliant-cut diamonds, mounted in platinum, 38.5 cm. Signed Massoni. Estimate CHF170,000 – CHF220,000 ($193,892 - $250,919

Christie's. GENEVA MAGNIFICENT JEWELS, 14 May 2014, Geneva - http://www.christies.com/

Alberto Giacometti (1901 – 1966), Buste d'Annette IV. Photo Sotheby's.

Inscribed with the signature Alberto Giacometti, numbered 5/6 and inscribed with the foundry mark Susse Fondeur, Paris. Bronze. Height: 23 inches, 58.5 cm. Conceived in 1962 and cast in 1963. Estimation 3,000,000 — 5,000,000 USD

Provenance: Théodore Fraenkel
Léna Lerclerq
Acquired in May 1965

Litterature: Jean-Raoul Moulin, Giacometti: Sculptures, Paris, 1964, illustration of another cast no. 24
Alberto Giacometti: Sculpture, Paintings and Drawings (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1965, no. 71, illustration of another cast
Alberto Giacometti (exhibition catalogue), Musée de l’Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, 1969, no. 110, illustration of another cast p. 82
Reinhold Hohl, Alberto Giacometti, New York, 1971, illustration of another cast p. 263
Giacometti, Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings (exhibition catalogue), Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol & Serpentine Gallery, London, 1981, no. 33, illustration of another cast
Ronald Alley, ed., Collection of the Tate Gallery’s Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists (collection catalogue), London, 1981, illustration of another cast p. 283
Alberto Giacometti (exhibition catalogue), The Seibu Museum of Art, Japan, 1983, no. 193, illustration of another cast
James Lord, Giacometti: A Biography, New York, 1983, illustration of another cast n.p.
Bernard Lamarche-Vadel, Alberto Giacometti, Paris, 1984, illustration of another cast p. 154
Alberto Giacometti (exhibition catalogue), Nationalgalerie Berlin & Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, 1987, no. 235, illustration of another cast p. 539
Alberto Giacometti: 1901-1966 (exhibition catalogue), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C., 1988, no. 100, illustration of another cast
Alberto Giacometti (exhibition catalogue), Museo Nacional, Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, 1990, no. 248, illustration of another cast
Yves Bonnefoy, Alberto Giacometti, A Biography of His Work, Paris, 1991, fig. 517, color illustration of another cast p. 512
Thierry Dufrêne, Alberto Giacometti: Les Dimensions de la réalité, Geneva, 1994, illustration of another cast p. 183
Alberto Giacometti: Sculpture, dipinti, disegni (exhibition catalogue), Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1995, no. 78
Jean Soldini, Alberto Giacometti: La Somiglianza introvabile, Milan, 1998, illustration of another cast p. 141
The Millenium Gift of Sara Lee Corporation (exhibition catalogue), Singapore Museum of Art, Singapore, 1999, illustration of another cast pp. 62ff
Alberto Giacometti: A Selection of Sculptures, Paintings, and Works on Paper, With an essay by Jean Genet (exhibition catalogue), Galerie Art Focus, Zurich, 1999, p. 84
Alberto Giacometti (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York & Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, 2001, no. 179, illustration of another cast p. 240
Toni Stooss ‘Portraits in Space. An approach to Alberto Giacometti’s Busts’ in Markus Bruderlin & Tony Stooss, eds., Alberto Giacometti, The Origin of Space (exhibition catalogue), Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, 2011, fig. 16, illustration of another cast p. 196

An arresting, near life-size portrait, Annette IV belongs to an important series of bronze busts that Giacometti made of his wife in the early 1960s. Working furiously and often from life, Giacometti created the first eight busts of the series – including the present work – in 1962, adding a ninth iteration in 1964 and culminating in the tenth,Annette X, in 1965. In his seminal monograph on the artist, Yves Bonnefoy suggests that it was with this series of works that Giacometti came closest to fulfilling his ambition to capture the physical and psychological presence of his model. The greatness of these sculptures, Bonnefoy wrote, lies in the “flame in the depth of the eyes, somehow captured in bronze, which testifies to the fact of life in those glances which are doomed to become decaying matter.  It seems as though Giacometti's sole concern was to preserve that furtive presence from the flames of death" (Y. Bonnefoy, op. cit., p. 51). An extremely rare cast which has not appeared at auction since 1999, Annette IV is thus a spellbinding, final homage to the woman who had served as one of Giacometti’s most important muses since the day they had met in Geneva in the fall of 1943, when she was just twenty years old. 

Alberto and Annette were married in 1949 and by the time he first created the sculpture from which Annette IV was cast, Giacometti had been painting and drawing Annette for over a decade and a half; only his brother Diego could rival her in terms of prominence within his work. Giacometti was notoriously demanding of his sitters, expecting them to pose absolutely immobile for hours on end within the famously ramshackle surroundings of his studio on rue Hippolyte-Maindron, and he felt strongly that it was precisely his intimacy with his models that brought about a sense of unfamiliarity when he placed them under the intense scrutiny of these sessions. In the last decade of his life, Giacometti was increasingly drawn to working from life in sculpture too, having previously eschewed it, and it was to those closest to him, principally Annette and Diego, that he turned once again for models. The present work was executed at a time when the relationship between the artist and his wife was increasingly fraught, however, for it was only a year previously that Giacometti had met Caroline, a young woman who had quickly become his mistress and would remain an important part of his life and work until his death in 1966. While Annette remained a vital presence in Giacometti’s life and continued to visit his studio daily, there appears to have been some strain between them and it was perhaps Giacometti’s desire, or need, for a fresh appraisal of his wife’s character under this upheaval in both his life and art that prompted his decision to turn to her features in his sculpture at this moment in time.

In the case of Annette IV, the relationship between the artist and subject is evident in the sense of scale that he embraces: the relatively large scale of the head compared to many of his other portraits brings about a sense of intimacy through its implied sense of proximity. Giacometti was tantalized by the presence of his subject in front of him and the seeming divide between the head that he saw and the one that he could model. This affected every aspect of his sculpture, and the reality of Annette’s physical proximity here is evidenced by the incredible opulence of the surface of the present work; a legacy of the probing, darting movements of the artist’s hands when he modeled her features. As he adds substance to the figure of Annette in this sculpture, he heightens her expressiveness by kneading into the recesses of her eyes, the furrows of her brow, and the curls of her hair. Indeed, the naturalism of the depiction in Annette IV lies in stark contrast to the busts that Giacometti had made of Diego in the 1950s in which he reduced the volume of his brother’s head to a knife-edge. For all this, there is an undeniable, almost tangible, sense of solitude and psychological distance in the figure of Annette IV, accentuated by Giacometti’s intense focus on his subject’s eyes, which completely dominate the bust, fixing the viewer with the intensity of their wide, unblinking gaze.

For Giacometti, it was the head in particular that presented a problem in terms of depiction – it contained the brain, the character, the personality, the face – and, during an interview in 1966, he confirmed that it was a subject’s eyes that fascinated him most of all. He explained, "When you look at a face you always look at the eyes.... Now the strange thing is, when you represent the eye precisely, you risk destroying exactly what you are after, namely the gaze.... In none of my sculptures since the war have I represented the eye precisely.  I indicate the position of the eye.  And I very often use a vertical line in place of the pupil.  It's the curve of the eyeball one sees.  And it gives the impression of the gaze.... When I get the curve of the eyeball right, then I've got the socket; when I get the socket, I've got the nostrils, the point of the nose, the mouth... and all of this together might just produce the gaze, without one's having to concentrate on the eye itself" (quoted in Kristine Stiles & Peter Selz, Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists' Writings, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 189).

A retro diamond cocktail ring, by Van Cleef & Arpels. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2014.

entering upon a brilliant-cut diamond within two rows of diamonds to the fluted wirework hoop, 1950s, ring size 6, with French assay marks for platinum and gold. Signed Van Cleef & Arpels, no. 4.290cs . Estimate CHF18,000 – CHF27,000 ($20,530 - $30,795)

Christie's. GENEVA MAGNIFICENT JEWELS, 14 May 2014, Geneva - http://www.christies.com/

Alberto Giacometti (1901 – 1966), Annette d'après nature (Nu debout). Photo Sotheby's.

Inscribed with the signature Alberto Giacometti, numbered 0/6 and inscribed with the foundry mark Susse Fondeur Paris. Bronze. Height: 20 5/8 in., 52.5 cm. Conceived in 1954 and cast in 1962. Estimation 3,500,000 — 4,500,000 USD

Provenance: Acquired from the artist in April 1964
PROPERTY FROM THE PIERRE AND TANA MATISSE FOUNDATION, NEW YORK

Litterature: James Lord, “Alberto Giacometti” in L’Oeil, January 15, 1955, illustration of another cast p. 14
Jacques Dupin, Alberto Giacometti, Paris, 1962, illustration of another cast p. 267 (titled Annette)
Alberto Giacometti: Zeichnungen, Gemälde, Skulpturen, Galerie Beyeler, Basel, 1963, illustration of another cast (titled Figure feminine)
Reinhold Hohl, Alberto Giacometti, New York, 1971, illustration of another cast p. 197 (as dating from 1954 and titled Femme nu)
Alberto Giacometti (exhibition catalogue), Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, 1978, illustration of another cast p. 100
Giacometti, Sculpture, Paintings, Drawings (exhibition catalogue), Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol & Serpentine Gallery, London, 1981, illustration of another cast p. 31 (as dating from 1954)
Alberto Giacometti Exposition au Japon (exhibition catalogue), The Seibu Museum of Art, Seibu, 1983, illustration of another cast p. 31 (as dating from 1954 and titled Figure d’après nature)
André Kuenzi, Alberto Giacometti (exhibition catalogue), Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, 1986, illustration of another cast p. 274 (as dating from 1954)
Kosme María de Barañano, Alberto Giacometti, dibujo, escultura, pintura, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, 1990-91, illustration of another cast p. 89 (as dating from 1954 and titled Figura de pie II)
Yves Bonnefoy, Alberto Giacometti, A Biography of His Work, Paris, 1991, illustration of another cast p. 384 (as dating from 1954)
Christian Klemm, Alberto Giacometti (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York & Kunsthaus Zürich, 2001-02, illustration of another cast p. 219 (as dating from 1954)
L’Atelier d’Alberto Giacometti. Collection de la Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti (exhibition catalogue), Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2007-08, illustration of the plaster p. 404 (as dating from 1954 and titled Annette d’après nature)
Markus Brüderlin & Toni Stooss, eds., Alberto Giacometti: The Origin of Space (exhibition catalogue), Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg & Museum der Moderne Mönchsberg, Salzburg, 2011, illustration of another cast pp. 153 & 441 (as dating from 1954 and titled Annette debout d’après nature)

Annette d'après nature is an elegant example one of the most important motifs of Giacometti's art - the standing female figure. Throughout the 1940s and until his death in 1966, Giacometti created several variations of a lone nude woman, her long, lean body anchored with heavy block feet to a base. His many sculptural versions of this motif, most notably his series known as Femmes de Venise highlight the dramatic contours of the body and the power of a single gesture.

Conceived in 1954, at the height of Giacometti's international acclaim, the present sculpture is related to the remarkable series of Giacometti's Femmes de Venise, which made their debut at the Venice Biennale in 1955. After his success at the Biennale, Giacometti continued to develop the theme of standing female figures, elongating and accentuating the feminine body and challenging the limits of the malleability and manipulation of his bronze figures. His exploration of this theme culminated in 1960 with his Grandes femmes, which were intended as part of a project for Chase Manhattan Plaza in New York City, followed by Femme debout of 1961, which was to be one of his final works on this subject.

The scale of his sculptures was an important component in Giacometti's creative vision. Sculptures that were too big, or life size, 'infuriated' him because they relied too much on imagination rather than on existential experience. On the other hand, he found works that were too small to be 'intolerable' because they were difficult to handle and materially unsustainable. The present work was an ideal form for him to manipulate. He could walk around it while simultaneously twisting and pinching it at all points and angles. Working on this scale he liberated his figure from the mimicry of reality, eliminating the need for viewers to imagine the work in proportional relation to themselves. By doing so, his figure became purely a concrete object in a clearly defined space. 

Dieter Honisch explains the complexities Giacometti faced with sculptures of this stature: “The pictorial distance of Giacometti's figure, which rendered them thin and small, automatically raised the question of how they were to be granted the tactile proximity that is essential to sculpture. Giacometti solved this problem in a two-fold way. Firstly, he gave his figures a large base or pedestal.  Secondly, as his friends report, he generated a sense of proximity by incessantly fingering the clay models, hence giving the impression of surfaces seen from close up. As a result, no one figure ever looked similar to another, because the final state emerged only from a continuous series of innumerable sculptural actions” (D. Honisch, 'Scale in Giacometti's Sculpture', in Alberto Giacometti, Sculpture, Paintings, Drawings, Munich & New York, 1994, p. 68).

A ruby and diamond ring. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2014.

Set with a cushion-shaped ruby, weighing approximately 4.31 carats, to the cushion-shaped diamond surround, mounted in platinum and gold, ring size 7¼. Estimate CHF28,000 – CHF36,000 ($31,935 - $41,059)

Accompanied by report no. 11085153 dated 29 August 2011 from the Gübelin GemLab stating that the ruby is of Burmese origin, with no indications of heating, and two notes on Burmese rubies and large gem-quality rubies.

Christie's. GENEVA MAGNIFICENT JEWELS, 14 May 2014, Geneva - http://www.christies.com/

Alberto Giacometti (1901 – 1966), Atelier I. Photo Sotheby's.

Signed and dated Alberto Giacometti 1950 (lower right), oil on canvas, 25 3/4 by 18 1/8 in., 65.2 by 46 cm. Painted in 1950. Estimation 3,000,000 — 4,000,000 USD

Provenance: Galerie Maeght, Paris
Private Colletion, USA (acquired from the above circa 1960)
Sale: Christie's, New York, November 6, 2007, lot 4
Acquired at the above sale

Exposition: New York, Gagosian Gallery, Isabel and Oher Intimate Strangers. Portraits by Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon, 2008, illustrated in the catalogue

Giacometti's depictions of his studio capture the frenetic artistry that defined his creative process.  Between 1950 and 1954 he completed several canvases, drawings and lithographs that depicted the jumble of plaster sculptures, empty bottles, armatures, stretcher bars and wooden stools that crowded his workspace.  The ashen and tobacco-stained palette of the artist's paintings of this subject, including the present work, evoke the plaster dust that covered nearly every surface and the cigarette butts that he discarded all over the floor.  Alexander Liberman, who visited Giacometti's studio in the early 1950s, described the scene: "Under a big window is a long table entirely covered with squeezed tubes of paint, palettes, paintbrushes, rags and bottles of turpentine.  Like figures, the bottles stand shrouded in layers of dust chipped away from Giacometti's sculpture.  Here sculpture and painting mix intimately" (A. Liberman, The Artist and His Studio, New York, 1960, pp. 277-78). 

An amethyst and diamond ring, by Van Cleef & Arpels. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2014.

Centering upon a cabochon amethyst with four diamond corners and square-shaped hoop, ring size 6, with French assay mark for gold, in dark blue Van Cleef & Arpels case. With maker's mark and signed Van Cleef & Arpels, no.BL30784. Estimate CHF2,000 – CHF3,000 ($2,281 - $3,422)

Christie's. GENEVA MAGNIFICENT JEWELS, 14 May 2014, Geneva - http://www.christies.com/

Gem set and diamond bracelet, David Webb. Photo Sotheby's.

The wide articulated strap of foliate design decorated with leaves and berries of carved rubies, sapphires and emeralds and ruby rondelles, the branches set with brilliant-cut diamonds, accented with black enamel, the clasp set with similar calibré-cut stones, length approximately 210mm, signed David Webb. Estimation 270,000 — 450,000 CHF

Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from David Webb, dated 19 February 2010.

Sotheby's. Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels, Genève, 13 mai 2014 - http://www.sothebys.com/

A blue and white jar, Late Ming Dynasty. Photo Bonhams.

Typically decorated on the broad body with a central band of Happy Omens and Precious Objects amongst flowering peonies, framed by decorative bands at the shoulder and foot. 20.5cm (8 1/8in) high. Estimate £1,500 - 2,500 (€1,800 - 3,000)

Bonhams. ASIAN ART, London, Knightsbridge, 12 May 2014 - http://www.bonhams.com/

Sapphire, ruby and diamond ring, David Webb. Photo Sotheby's.

Featuring a cabochon sapphire flanked by circular-cut rubies, framed with brilliant-cut diamonds and pear-shaped rubies, size 57, signed Webb. Estimation 45,000 — 72,000 CHF

Accompanied by SSEF report no. 72246, stating that the sapphire is of Burmese origin, with no indications of heating.

Sotheby's. Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels, Genève, 13 mai 2014 - http://www.sothebys.com/

An unusual white-metal mounted blue and white ewer. The porcelain 18th century. Photo Bonhams.

Of flattened octagonal form, with lobed petal form facets, the short spout flanked by two small lug handles, the body pencil drawn to each side with passion flowers and trailing leafy stems. 20cm (7.7/8in) high. Estimate£1,000 - 1,500 (€1,200 - 1,800)

Bonhams. ASIAN ART, London, Knightsbridge, 12 May 2014 - http://www.bonhams.com/