Here Bourgeois creates a family emblem with profiles of mother and father, and child at the center. The 1940 painting was an homage to her newborn son, and she described the representation as "a closed eternal circle." She revived the composition in 1990, as she often did with older images that continued to resonate with her. The occasion was the birth of a friend's child and, after experimentation, she settled on the serene blue version.
Gallery label from Louise Bourgeois: An Unfolding Portrait, Sept. 24, 2017-Jan. 28, 2018.