Louise Bourgeois. Champfleurette, the White Cat (1993)

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Louise Bourgeois. Champfleurette, the White Cat. 1993

IMAGE PERMISSIONS

Cat. No. 133.1, variant 1

Champfleurette, the White Cat

State/Variant:: Version 1 of 2, only state, variant
Date:: 1993

Alternate Title:: Happiness
Themes:: Animals & Insects
Techniques:: Aquatint
Description:: Aquatint
Support:: Smooth, wove paper
Dimensions:: plate: 9 15/16 x 16 3/4" (25.2 x 42.5 cm); sheet: 15 9/16 x 21 1/16" (39.6 x 53.5 cm)
Signature:: Not signed
Inscription:: The alternate title is derived from an inscription in the artist's hand on another impression of this composition (see version 2, state I, variant, in the Evolving Composition Diagram below).
Publisher:: unpublished
Printer:: Harlan & Weaver, New York
Edition:: 2 known variant impressions of version 1, only state
Impression:: Not numbered
Edition Information:: Proof before the editioning of version 2, state IV.
Background:: In the 1950s, when Bourgeois was living with her husband and children in an apartment on 18th Street in New York City, the family had two cats: Champfleurette and Tyger.

According to Marie-Laure Bernadac, "The name of the cat is a feminisation of the French writer and art critic Jules Champfleury (1821-89)." (Quote cited in Morris, Frances and Marie-Laure Bernadac. "Louise Bourgeois." London: Tate Modern, 2007, p. 40.)

Champfleury authored "Les Chats," a book of essays on cats with illustrations by multiple artists, including Manet and Delacroix. (Champfleury, Jules and J. Rothschild, editor. "Les Chats." Paris: Librairie de la Société botanique de France, 1870.)
Curatorial Remarks:: In 1993, at the initiation of the printers at Harlan & Weaver, New York, Bourgeois rendered version 1 in lift ground aquatint based on the 1983 source drawing. The artist eventually abandoned the aquatint plate and began developing a second version in the drypoint technique. Bourgeois continued to work on version 2 into 1994, when she created an additional source drawing, a photocopy study, and a tracing study, to aid in further development of the composition. The tracing study shows Bourgeois considering placing a figure in the window at the right of the later states of version 2. The final state of version 2, in drypoint, etching, and aquatint, was published by Peter Blum Edition in 1994.
Former Cat. No.:: W & S 148
MoMA Credit Line:: Gift of the artist
MoMA Accession Number:: 130.1994