[Annette]

Alberto Giacometti

1957

Graphite pencil reworked with eraser (estompe) on buff wove paper

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Alberto Giacometti’s wife and frequent model, Annette, sits alone on a stool in the artist’s studio, gazing straight ahead, devoid of expression. The drawing focuses on Annette—her figure so small within the vast and vaguely drawn interior—especially her face, which Giacometti has reworked with graphite and erasure to draw attention without providing much more visual information. Giacometti intended such portraits not as psychological or sociological studies but as translations of the models’ “otherness, ” suggesting that no amount of understanding or identifying with his subjects could overcome their separateness from him. He meant