Franck Maubert's 'Le dernier modèle' explores Giacometti's final muse

Franck Maubert's book 'Le dernier modèle', winner of the 2012 Prix Renaudot essai, examines the relationship between Alberto Giacometti and his last companion, Caroline. Maubert, a former art critic, left Parisian life to write. The narrative follows his interviews with an elderly Caroline, whose fragmented memories reveal both the illicit affair and the delicate dynamic between interviewer and subject. Giacometti met Caroline, a 20-year-old prostitute, at the bar Chez Adrien when he was 59. Despite his exhaustion, he was drawn to nightlife. Caroline later posed in his chaotic studio, becoming his model. Giacometti's portraits of her, such as 'Caroline en pied' (1964-1965) and 'Caroline à la robe rouge' (1964-1965), focus on the face and gaze, reflecting his pursuit of perceptual truth, as noted by Merleau-Ponty and Sartre. He produced about thirty oil paintings and numerous drawings. The book also hints at Giacometti's simultaneous sculpting of his wife Annette's face, despite the women's mutual dislike. Maubert, like Giacometti, was in his fifties when he met Caroline, who was nearly twenty years his senior.