Hamilton Gallery, London
Robert Elkon, New York (and sold: Sotheby's New York, November 17, 1983, lot 340, illustrated)
André Emmerich Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the pres🐲ent owner, 1983

Annette’s appearance in Alberto Giacometti’s paintings and sculpture of the mid-1950s marked a decisive shift in his art.  In comparison to the spindly, anonymous female figures of the previous decade, the women of the 1950s are marked by a more expressive style. Although several strong females provided inspiration for Giacometti’s work, it was Annette who had the most profound and long-lasting effect on his oeuvre.
Giacometti was instantly taken with the young Annette Arm when he met her after moving to Switzerland in 1942. As their friend Jean Starobinski remembered, “When Annette appeared at his side, in Geneva, it was as though she had been expected. She was a young woman who stood ‘facing you,’ who watched, and spoke, and met life ‘head on,’ infinitely candid and infinitely reserved, in a wonderful frontality” (quoted in The Women of Giacometti (exhibition catalogue), Pace Wildenstein, New York, 2005, p. 19).  This sense of directness, strength and personal connection is evident in the present work, which Mary Lisa Palmer calls "a vibrant hommage to the artist's wife."