Dream

Cat. No. 419.1/III

Dream

State/Variant:
Version 1 of 2, state III of X
Date:
1939
Alternate Title:
Sleeping Girl
Themes
Architecture, Figures, Objects
Techniques
Relief
Support:
Smooth, wove Japanese paper
Dimensions:
composition: 9 13/16 x 14 3/16" (25 x 36 cm); sheet: 12 x 17 7/8" (30.5 x 45.4 cm)
Signature:
"Louise Bourgeois 1939" lower right margin, pencil.
Publisher
unpublished
Printer
Louise Bourgeois
Edition:
1 known impression of version 1, state III
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 6 blocks and 14 colors.

Block 1: woman, table, vase, wall, and floor.

Block 2: linear pattern in lower right composition and amorphous pattern in upper left composition.

Block 3: background surface with cut-away area encompassing woman and table.

Block 4: geometric pattern in upper left, abstract pattern in top center, and abstract form in bottom center.

Block 5: recut image of block 1.

Block 6: recut image of block 2.
Impression:
Not numbered
Former Cat. No.:
W & S 7
Description:
Woodcut, with green and brown oil-based ink additions
Inscription:
Verso: "sleeping girl / 55" lower center sheet, pencil, artist's hand; "3" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.

The alternate title "Sleeping Girl" derives from this impression's inscriptions.
State Changes and Additions:
Block 1 printed in black, over block 2 printed in red-orange.
Change from version 1, state II: block 2 added.
Change from version 1, state II, in block 1: upper center and center composition further cut.
Additions in green: abstract patterns added, anticipating addition of block 4 in version 1, state IX.
Artist’s Remarks:
“Dream is a self-portrait,” Bourgeois said, “a portrait of a mood, a very dark mood. The woman is crying. She is homesick. She is probably waiting for a letter, a letter that never comes.” (Quote cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 41.)
MoMA Credit Line:
Gift of the artist
MoMA Accession Number:
230.1992.3
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY

Dream

1939

First Version
Dream
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Second Version
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