Galerie Maeght, Paris
Hermann Goldsmith, New York 
Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts (sale: Christie's, 15th November 1989, lot 94)
The Piccadilly Gallery, London
Acqui🧜red from the above by t✨he present owner in 1997

Apolda, Kunsthaus Apolda Avantgarde & Kleve, Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Alberto Giacometti Porträts, 2001-02, no. 36, illustrated in the catalogue
Munich, Literaturhaus München; Linz, Adalbert-Stifter-Institut & Klagenfurt, Stadtgalerie Klagenfurt, Seelenverwandtschaften: Schriftstellerporträts der Sammlung Klewan, 2002-03, illustrated in the catalogue
London, Thomas Gibson Fine Art & Lefevre Gallery, Alberto Giacometti Paintings and Drawings from Private Collections, 2004, illustrated in the catalogue
Girona, Sala Girona de l'Obra Social "la Caixa"; Lleida, Centre Social i Cultural Lleida de l'Obra Social "la Caixa" & Palma de Mallorca, CaixaForum, Alberto Giacometti a la collecció Klewan, 2007, no. 22, illustrated in the catalogue
Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Museum Lothar Fischer, Alberto Giacometti Sammlung Klewan, 2007-08, illustrated in the catalogue

Axel Matthes & Mechthild Rausch, Dichter Denker Dadaisten, Schriftstellerporträts der Sammlung Klewan, Berlin, 2007, illustrated in colour p. 140

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, hinged to the mount in the top two corners, floating in the mount. The right edge of the sheet is uneven. Apart from some very light studio dirt, mainly to the edges of the sheet, this work is good original condition. Colours: Overall accurate, although the paper tone is slightly warmer and the pencil lines are slighly more subtle in the original.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The present work is a remarkable document of the relationships which emerged between artists, critics, curators and historians during the 1960s, at a time when public and scholarly appreciation for contemporary art reached a new height. During this defining period, art was considered much less in isolation and came to be an important subject for theorists and philosophers alike. The art of Alberto Giacometti, moreover, was a particular focus for critical attention as the artist exhibited widely on an international level, forging friendships with significant figures s🦩uch as Aimé Maeght, Samuel Beckett, Michel Leiris, Jean-Paul Sartre and John Rewald – the sitter for the present work.

John Rewald, depicted with his wife Alice, was arguably the foremost scholar of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and the authority on Paul Cézanne – whose art was, in turn, of great fascination to Giacometti. A graduate of Hamburg University and the Sorbonne, Rewald emigrated to the United States in 1941 under the aegis of Alfred Barr, Director of the Museum of Modern Art, where he worked as a consultant and curator. During his distinguished career he published the seminal work The History of Impressionism, advised both John Hay Whitney and Paul Mellon on purchases to their collections and organised the landmark exhibition Cézanne: The Late Work with William Rubin, held at the🎃 Museum of Modern Art in 1977.

In the present work, Giacometti is not concerned with detail or precision; yet, remarkably, he succeeds in creating a portrait which pointedly conveys the unique identity of his sitters. Giacometti relentlessly scrutinises the vertiginous relationship between form and space – one which vexed Cézanne throughout his career. For both artists, the rendering of volume, the depiction of an object's materiality, its very existence, became the single most important objective in art. The psychological complexity which underpins such portraits as the present example was lucidly encapsulated by the artist when he confessed, 'I had begun to see heads in the void, in the space that surrounded them' (the artist in Michael Peppiatt, Alberto Giacometti in Postwar Paris, New Haven & London🌺, 2001, p. 7).   

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Fig. 1, Paul Cézanne, Portrait d'Ambroise Vollard, 1899, oil on canva⛄s, Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris