LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Descriptive Title:

Five Breasts

Themes:

Body Parts, Figures, Motherhood & Family, Nature

Techniques:

Drypoint

Description:

Drypoint, with pink watercolor, pencil, and black ink additions

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate: 4 15/16 × 6 15/16" (12.5 × 17.6 cm); sheet: 9 5/8 × 11" (24.5 × 27.9 cm)

Signature:

Not signed

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

Harlan & Weaver, New York

Edition:

1 known impression of version 1, state I

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Not issued as a published edition at any state.

State Changes and Additions:

Matrices:
The progression of version 1 of this composition, as seen in the Evolving Composition Diagram below, involved 2 plates in 3 different techniques.

Plate 1, in drypoint and engraving: breasts, mounds, and figures.

Plate 2, in mezzotint: shading.

State Changes:
Plate 1 printed in black.

Curatorial Remarks:

Toward the end of her life, Bourgeois made a large body of red gouache drawings related to the theme of Motherhood & Family. Bourgeois usually made several iterations of each scene, exploring pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding, among other subjects related to new life. Some drawings were used as source works for print compositions. As the print composition evolved, Bourgeois continued to explore the same subject through drawing. See Related Works in Other Mediums below for examples.

It is conceivable that there was a state prior to version 1, state I, based on printer's inscriptions on the verso of this impression. However, the existing impressions do not exhibit print state changes that support this inscription, and no known examples of other states exist. The progression of this composition was thus determined by what is found on the existing prints, and the printer's inscriptions were disregarded.

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

1601.2012

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY