This notebook contains only final versions of essays, some of biographical interest. The only (albeit meticulous) drawing is on a page that has been pasted in (fol 31r) and shows Hermann and his mother in conversation under the apple tree: it is the essay on ‘An image from Hermann and Dorothea’.

In a letter to Lucas Lichtenhan, the mentor from a senior class assigned to him by the school, Alberto volubly describes how, rather than supplying the written description of the picture he was told to imagine, he had drawn the picture itself and added just a few lines of text.

Material

Ink in black till 20v, 36v–40, in blue 20v–36r, corrections in redt; fol. 31r on pasted paper watercolour over ink.

Dimensions

22.0 x 17.7 cm

Creditline

Kunsthaus Zürich, Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, Donated by Bruno and Odette Giacometti, 2000

Object number

GS 220

Signature

inscribed on p. 2: 1917–1918

Further information

43 sheets

Provenance

• Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft | Kunsthaus Zürich, ab 2000, Leihgabe
• Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung (Sammlung), Zürich, 2000, Geschenk
• Bruno und Odette Giacometti, bis 2000
• Alberto Giacometti