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Etching and engraving, with black and red ink and blue carbon additions
Support:
Smooth, wove paper
Dimensions:
plate: 12 7/8 × 9 15/16" (32.7 × 25.3 cm); sheet: 16 5/16 x 11" (41.5 x 28 cm)
Signature:
"LB" lower right margin, red ink.
Inscription:
Verso:"Bridgeport / Easton / Manhattan / New Haven" center sheet, black ink, artist's hand "New Haven / Yale" center left sheet, red ink, artist's hand "Port Jefferson / ferry goes / to Bridgeport" left center sheet, red ink, artist's hand "statue / of / liberty" lower right sheet, red ink, artist's hand
Changes from state II, in drypoint: lower composition further delineated.
Background:
According to Felix Harlan, of Harlan & Weaver, New York, Bourgeois's map compositions stem from her desire to sort through memories and associations with different places. The artist used preexisting maps as references for her own abstracted compositions, excluding the information essential to map reading. In this way, the maps served more as personal documents for the artist, rather than as references or guides.
In 1941, Bourgeois and her family purchased a small country house in Easton, Connecticut, which remains in the family. Its location is encircled several times in the center right of this composition.
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