Diego Giacometti (15 November 1902 – 15 July 1985) was a Swiss sculptor and designer, and the younger brother of the sculptor Alberto Giacometti.
Diego Giacometti was born in Borgonovo, a Swiss village near the Italian border. Son of the painter Giovanni Giacometti, he grew up in a warm, convivial familial atmosphere amidst the animals of their farm. In 1904, the family settled in nearby Stampa in the canton of Grisons.
After business studies in Basel and Saint-Gall, at age 25 he followed the advice of his mother Annetta and went to Paris to rejoin his brother Alberto, then a student of the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle at the Academy of the Grande Chaumière. All three of the Giacometti brothers went into the visual arts: Alberto and Diego into painting and sculpture, and Bruno into architecture.
The working relationship of Diego with Alberto was so close that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the work of Diego from that of Alberto, 13 months his senior. They shared the same sculpture studio at 46 rue Hippolyte-Maindron in Paris until the ends of their lives and executed the commissions of their cultured clients such as the Maeght and Noailles families.
During World War II Diego Giacometti did his first animal sculptures. Animals regularly adorned his works, such as the Table arbre à la souris (Tree table with mouse) which belonged to the collection of Jean-Paul Binet, an eminent surgeon who was a close friend and patron of Diego Giacometti. His fascination with the animal kingdom was tied to the mythological and dream-like world of his childhood.
His sculptures are sometimes amusing or picturesque. For example, L' Autruche (The Ostrich) owed its existence to the fact that his friend Dr. Binet, not knowing what to do with an ostrich egg, gave it to Diego who integrated inside an ostrich that he dreamt up and sculpted. Diego Giacometti's animal art was rich. Along with familiar animals he liked to have animals that symbolized force, power and beauty such as the heads of lions, wolves and horses.