Alberto Giacometti’s Diego en chemise écossaise leads Christie’s November 5 sale in New York

KOLKATA: Alberto Giacometti’s (1901-1966) Diego en chemise écossaise, estimated at $30-50 million, will lead Christie’s November 5 Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art in New York.

This painting is among the most compelling renderings Alberto ever produced of his brother Diego, his most frequent and by now signature subject. Diego en chemise écossaise showcases the graphic drama and economy of representation that would become hallmarks of Giacometti’s painting.

Diego en chemise écossaise has been in a private collection for over two decades and has never appeared at auction. Andreas Rumbler, deputy chairman of the Impressionist and Modern Art department and head of Evening Sale, at Christie’s New York comments: “Although Diego was Alberto Giacometti’s most frequent sitter — serving almost as an alter ego for the artist — never before did he depict him with quite the same energy or fervor as he did in this work.

The interplay of multiple dimensions and color renders his subject as an object in space, an "everyman" without unique qualities, an emblem of humanity. With this masterpiece, Alberto Giacometti establishes himself as one of the greatest portrait painters of the 20th Century, paving the way for the likes of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.”