The exercise books evidence Giacometti’s rapid progress in learning German.

They also contain numerous vignettes of the topics covered, mostly in coloured Indian ink.

‘The Adventurer’ is a short drama about Spanish swashbucklers, while the highly decorated ‘Head coverings from around the world’ offer less action-packed fare. In the essay ‘How I came home for the first time’, he picks up the frieze-like method of decoration that his father Giovanni Giacometti had used when illustrating Bundi’s ‘Engadin Fairy Tales’. On the back pages and in a small notebook, the sixteen-year-old shows his age, with depictions of boxing matches, maenads and the like.

Material

Black ink, decorative element and correction in red till 31r; Vignettes in coloured in from 3 till 9v, 19; Vignettes in pencil: 19–22, additionaly in blue ink 21v, 22r; from 31v pencilt, writing partly in blue ink.

Dimensions

22.0 x 17.7 cm

Creditline

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

Object number

GS 219

Signature

not inscribed

Further information

44 sheets

Provenance

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