Diego Giacometti

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner, circa 1970

Michel Butor and Jean Vincent, Diego Giacometti, Paris, 1985, p. 143

Françoise Francisci, Diego Giacometti, Catalogue de l'oeuvre, Paris, 1986, p. 52 (for a related example)

Christian Boutonnet and Rafael Ortiz, Diego Giacometti, exh. cat., Galerie L'Arc en Seine, Paris, 2003, p. 101

Daniel Marchesseau, Diego Giacometti, Sculpteur de meubles, Paris, 2018, p. 97 

Originally commissioned in the 1970s by Hubert de Givenchy, "Bucky" forms part of a tender series of bronze portraits that Diego Giacometti created of the couturier’s beloved dogs—Bucky, Lippo, Sandy, and Assouan. Givenchy and Giacometti first met in the late 1950s, when the textile designer and collector Gustav Zumsteg gifted Givenchy a guéridon by Giacometti, sparking a collaborative friendship that would endure for decades. Giacometti became the only sculptor-designer with whom Givenchy worked closely, and his sculptures, furnishings, and poetic animal forms came to populate the designer’s residences in Paris and at the Château du Jonchet.

Rendered in richly textured bronze with Giacometti’s nuanced patina, "Bucky" exemplifies the vivid naturalism that so moved Givenchy, who remarked that Giacometti’s animals "talk… their faces are infused with life." Animals also appeared throughout his functional pieces, such as a console with a bird-form stretcher, and notably, the figure of "Bucky" also features on a low table commissioned circa 1978. The present cast follows the model originally conceived for the couturier’s cherished companion, and represents one of the more personal subjects within Giacometti’s intimate bestiary.