Diego Seated 1948

Alberto Giacometti painted Diego Seated, with oil on canvas, using a muted palette of grays, greens, and browns, punctuated by a flash of red. It’s almost as though the painting was built up in layers, searching for form, emerging through strokes of trial, error, and pure intuition. I can imagine Giacometti standing before the canvas, brush in hand, head cocked to one side, trying to capture not just Diego’s likeness, but his essence. The paint is applied in thin washes and nervous, agitated lines, creating a surface that feels both tentative and raw. Look at the way he renders the hands, they're just quick slashes of paint, yet they convey so much about Diego’s presence, his vulnerability. It reminds me a bit of other figurative painters like Francis Bacon who capture the fragility of human existence. In the end, artists are always in conversation with each other across time, inspiring each other. Painting is about embracing uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meanings.