Alberto Giacometti (October 10, 1901-January 11, 1966)

The son of Swiss impressionist painter Giovanni Giacometti, he was born in Stampa in the Bregaglia Valley. He displayed a talent for painting and sculpture at an early age and with his father's guidance he made his earliest drawings, paintings and sculpture using his family for models. By age ten he had progressed from a simple illustration of Snow White to a detailed copy of Rembrandt's Good Samaritan. His first bust, made when he was just thirteen, was of his younger brother, Diego, who would become his lifelong assistant.

Alberto spent six months when he was eighteen as a student at the Ecole Des Arts et Metiers in Geneva. He visited Venice with...