LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Alternate Title:

Mirror

Descriptive Title:

Woman in Bathtub

Themes:

Faces & Portraits, Figures, Objects

Techniques:

Drypoint

Description:

Drypoint, with pencil additions

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate: 10 7/8 x 8 1/2" (27.7 x 21.6 cm); sheet: 16 7/8 x 13" (42.8 x 33 cm)

Signature:

Not signed

Inscription:

Verso: "what a mirror can do!" lower center sheet, red ink, artist's hand.

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

Harlan & Weaver, New York

Edition:

1 known impression of state I

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Proof before the editioning of state III.

State Changes and Additions:

Additions in pencil: mirror further delineated in upper right composition, surface of bath water further delineated in lower left and lower right composition, all anticipating state II.

Background:

Bourgeois was often inspired by the subjects of early drawings when creating works at much later dates. This 1994 portfolio is an example of a project based primarily on drawings from the 1940s and referring to her life in New York at that time. The exceptions are as follows: plate 1, based on a drawing from 1986 that references childbirth; plates 4 and 9, based on drawings from the 1940s but depicting memories of her childhood years in France; plate 11, most probably based on a drawing from the 1940s of a European hotel desk.

Curatorial Remarks:

Of the 14 plates in "Autobiographical Series," Bourgeois titled plates 6 and 12. The untitled plates have been assigned descriptive titles for cataloguing purposes.

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

639.2008

This Work in Other Collections:

Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland
Museu da Gravura Cidade de Curitiba, Brazil
Tate Modern, London

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY