Patinated bronze and velvet shades
circa 1970
height without shade : 33 cm ; 13 in.

Art and fashion permeated the entire life of Marie Pierre Colle Corcuera, one that she lived between Paris and Mexico. Her father, eminent art dealer Pierre Colle, opened his first gallery in Paris in 1930, exhibiting works by such great surrealists as Dali, Picasso, Giacometti, Miro and Man Ray. In 1935 he went into partnership with Maurice Renou and Christian Dior. By the time Christian Dior had become the great couturier, her mother Carmen Corcuera was one of his muses. Carmen Corcuera y Mier came from an upper-class Mexican family and was introduced to Pierre Colle by André Breton. Together they had three daughters, Silvia, Beatriz and Marie, and Balthus would paint all three of them a few years later. Marie Pierre Colle Corcuera grew up in the family apartment on Rue de Varenne, whose guests included Marie Laure de Noailles, Christian Bérard, Jean Cocteau, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. This elegant, freethinking woman befriended many artists, including Diego Giacometti, from whom she commissioned this paire of Chien et Faucon table lamps.

Françoise Francisci, Diego Giacometti, Catalogue de l'oeuvre, Paris, 1986, p. 28
Diego Gacometti, Möbel und Objekte aus Bronze, exhibition catalogue, Museum Bellerive, Zürich, June 16 - September 4, 1988, p. 76, n. 60
Diego Giacometti, exhibition catalogue, Galerie L'Arc en Seine, Paris, 2003, p. 85

Marie-Pierre Colle Corcuera
Thence by descent
Private collection, Mexico