[Albert] Giacometti was a potent husband. He fathered eight children, of whom seven were males. The third of these, a son, born on March 7, 1868, was named Giovanni. He grew up to be a gentle, pensive boy and early showed an interest in drawing. While at school, he came to feel that he would like to be an artist. The innkeeper encouraged his son in this ambition, helped him with money when possible, and sent him to study in Paris. Giovanni Giacometti was a man of medium height, robust, with red hair and beard, and blue eyes. Gentle, sensitive, sincere, he liked other people and was liked by them. His work resembles him. Neither adventuresome nor innovative, yet it shows spirit and imagination. His paintings are still pleasing today because he looked with incorruptible pleasure at life, and they have a certain nobility because he had. The start of his career was beset by difficulty and hardship. His father helped occasionally if he could, but there were days when Giovanni went hungry. Having finished his studies in Paris, he went to Italy and stayed some time in a town on the Bay of Naples not far from Pompeii. This was the most painful period of his life, and in later years he spoke of it often. But he returned periodically to Bregaglia. Early in 1900, he suffered a profoundly troubling bereavement. His father died. The innkeeper who had understood and sustained the artistic aspirations of his son did not live to see them fulfilled, and this must have been a further cause of distress to Giovanni. If so, it may not be coincidence that in the year of his father's death he made up his mind at the age of 32 to marry. [From Giacometti: A Biography by James Lord, found on Google Books.] Door James Lord