LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Alternate Title:

Coeur de Chêne (Heart of Oak)

Themes:

Objects

Techniques:

Relief

Description:

Woodcut, with green wash and pink crayon additions

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

composition: 11 9/16 x 9 1/8" (29.3 x 23.2 cm); sheet: 12 3/16 x 9 1/8" (31 x 23.2 cm)

Signature:

"Louise Bourgeois 1944" lower center comp., pencil.

Inscription:

Verso: "coeur de chene [sic] 57" upper right sheet, pencil, artist's hand; "3" upper center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.

The alternate title "Coeur de Chêne" derives from this impression's inscriptions and inscriptions on other known impressions of this composition.

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

The artist

Edition:

1 known impression of state I

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Not issued as a published edition at any state.

Matrices:
The progression of this composition, as seen in the Evolving Composition Diagram below, involved 5 blocks and 10 colors.

Block 1: lower cabinet, horizontal lines on floor, thin vertical lines at upper left and upper right.

Block 2: floor, cabinet counter top, background patterns in upper left half.

Block 3: irregular shapes in upper left.

Block 4: background surface of upper half and lower center.

Block 5: rows of shapes in top portion of cabinet.

State Changes and Additions:

Block 3 printed in blue, over block 2 printed in rose, over block 1 printed in black.
Additions in green wash: top half and center right composition shaded in, anticipating addition of block 4.
Additions in pink crayon: horizontal line added in center right composition, anticipating change in block 2, state II.

Background:

This composition was previously catalogued as a linoleum cut, but the Louise Bourgeois Studio discovered some of the blocks that were used to create this woodcut on the back of an oil painting on wood titled "Connecticutiana" from 1944-1945. See below in Related Works in Other Mediums.

Artist’s Remarks:

In 1941, Bourgeois and her family purchased a small country house in Easton, Connecticut, which remains in the family. The cupboard depicted in this woodcut was a notable piece of furniture in that house. For Bourgeois, the cupboard represented the shortages of wartime and the need to store food. "To see all those jars was comforting," she remembered later. "People had to keep jars of food because they didn't have refrigeration. It was just the beginning of refrigeration." The alternate title "Coeur de Chêne" refers to the oak from which the cabinet was made. Bourgeois remarked: "The wood was cut from the center and that part is of the highest quality." (Quotes cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 46.)

Former Cat. No.:

W & S 9

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

239.1992.1

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY