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composition: 8 3/16 x 10 13/16" (20.8 x 27.5 cm); sheet: 11 7/16 x 15 7/8" (29 x 40.3 cm)
Signature:
"LB" lower right margin, pencil.
Inscription:
"Summer 1941" lower right margin, pencil, artist's hand.
The alternate title "Interior" derives from an inscription on an impression of version 2, only state, not in MoMA's Collection and not included in the Evolving Composition Diagram below.
Proof before the editioning of version 2, only state.
Although there are 3 known impressions of version 1, only state, this impression is numbered 1/12, and others are numbered 5/12 and 6/12.
The additional known impressions of version 1, only state, are not in MoMA's Collection and are not reproduced here.
Background:
This composition depicts the country house in Easton, Connecticut that Bourgeois and her family purchased in 1941; it remains in the family.
American painter and printmaker, Will Barnet (1911-2012) was the master printer at The Art Students League and printed Bourgeois's lithographs.
Artist’s Remarks:
In referring to her early prints of people and interiors, Bourgeois said: “I love portraits. I never used a camera. This was my way of recording my life.” (Quote cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Musem of Modern Art, 1994, p. 48)
Curatorial Remarks:
In addition to lithographic crayon, some areas of version 1, only state are printed using liquid tusche (see center left, center, and right composition).
The alternate title, "Drawing at a Table," comes from the brochure checklist of a 1992 exhibition at the Susan Teller Gallery, New York, titled, "Printed by Will Barnet."
The alternate title, "Interior One Child," is cited in Wye and Smith, "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois," 1994, but could not be further substantiated. It has been dropped from the documentation of this print.
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