Diana Shapiro receiving Le Cheval, tête baissée from Diego Giacometti, 1984.Artwork: © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Image courtesy: the Estate of Diana Shapiro.

A handwritten note signed and dated by Diego Giacometti attests that he gave the present sculpture to Diana Shapiro as a gift in 1984, while a photograph shows Diana receiving it from Diego. It was common for Diego to gift small objects like this sculpture to close friends and patrons. The charismatic Cheval, with its gently tucked head, is part of Diego’s larger bestiary in bronze that included cats, dogs, birds, foxes, lions, toads, and mice. This example was cast just a year before the artist’s death, when he was busy working on his final major commission, creating the furniture and lighting for the Musée Picasso which opened in the fall of 1985.
- Provenance
  Diana and Irvin Shapiro, New York, acquired directly from the artist, 1984
- Literature
  Daniel Marchesseau, Diego Giacometti, Paris, 1986, p. 14
  Daniel Marchesseau, Diego Giacometti: Sculpteur de Meubles, Paris, 2018, p. 129
- Artist Biography
  Diego Giacometti
  Swiss • 1902 - 1985
  In 1935 Diego Giacometti took a holiday in Stampa, the Swiss town in which he grew up. The trip marked one of the first periods in which he was separated from his brother Alberto Giacometti, and perhaps in connection with having removed himself from the shadow of his brother's career, he began his first animal sculptures. It was shortly after this trip that the younger Giacometti also started making furniture, after patrons admired the stands he was crafting for his brother's sculptures. Diego modeled his maquettes in plaster (as opposed to clay or wax, which was the more common choice for sculptors) and cast his furniture in bronze, a departure from most metal furniture at the time, which was cast in iron. Illustrious clients included the Maeght and Noailles families as well as the decorator Jean-Michel Frank, who commissioned Alberto (assisted by Diego) to create plaster lighting and fireplace accessories.
  View More Works