Diego Giacometti

DeLorenzo Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owners, 1986

Michel Butor, Diego Giacometti, Paris, 1985, pp. 127 and 137

Françoise Francisci, Catalogue de l'œuvre de Diego Giacometti, vol. 1, Paris, 1986, pp. 15-17

Daniel Marchesseau, Diego Giacometti, Paris, 1986, p. 93

I Giacometti: la valle, il mondo, exh. cat., Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, Milan, 2000, p. 41

Daniel Marchesseau, Diego Giacometti, Sculpteur de meubles, Paris, 2018, p. 126

Giacometti, une famille de créateurs, exh. cat., Fondation Marguerite and Aimé Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence, 2021, pp. 262 -263

Diego, The Other Giacometti, exh. cat., Fondazione Luigi Rovati, Milan, 2023, p. 110

This work has been authenticated in accordance with the process established by the Diego Giacometti Estate.

The “Promenade des Amis” Console stands as one of Diego Giacometti’s most iconic creations—an abstract pastoral landscape that dissolves the boundary between sculpture and functional design. Dating from the final decade of the artist’s life, the console reflects a moment of remarkable clarity in Giacometti’s mature oeuvre, when decades of collaboration and experimentation coalesced into a singular and highly personal aesthetic language.

The title itself, “Promenade des Amis” (“Walk of Friends”), finds its expression not through human figures, but through a carefully composed naturalistic tableau. Across the slender upper rail, three trees are spaced in rhythmic succession, their stylized forms providing a vertical counterpoint to the horizontal structure. Accompanying them is a horse, rendered with a quiet monumentality that anchors the composition, alongside three small dogs that introduce movement, lightness, and a sense of domestic intimacy. Together, these elements form a pastoral procession, suggesting companionship and shared presence through Giacometti’s distinctive sculptural language.

Executed in patinated bronze, the console demonstrates Giacometti’s extraordinary ability to balance refinement with a deliberate rusticity. The surface retains the subtle irregularities of hand-worked material, catching and diffusing light in a manner that enlivens its tonal depth. The legs, slender yet assured, descend with an almost calligraphic grace, terminating in hoof-like feet that subtly echo the animal imagery above, reinforcing the dialogue between structure and representation.

Beyond its sculptural vocabulary, the present work also exemplifies Giacometti’s enduring interest in how objects inhabit and activate architectural space. He embraced an approach that foregrounded relational presence — an object’s ability to converse with its surroundings, rather than dominate them. The console’s permeable structure allows light and shadow to travel freely through the piece, creating a shifting interplay that evolves with the viewer’s movement and perspective. Therefore, the “Promenade des Amis” Console stands as a testament to Diego Giacometti’s vision in which structure, form, and narrative coalesce into an object of enduring significance.