Drypoint and aquatint on Somerset wove paper, 1994. 106x137 mm; 4 1/4x5 1/2 inches, full margins. Initialed and numbered 24/35 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Harlan and Weaver Intaglio, New York. Published by Peter Blum Editions, New York. From Autobiographical Series. A superb, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce print.
This image was inspired by Bourgeois' (1911-2010) experience living in a small downtown New York apartment with her family during the 1940s. According to Wye, Bourgeois recalled the following, revisiting this image: "This is the bathroom at 18th Street. Everything is exactly the same . . . the cabinet . . . the tub with the feet . . . it is very accurate. I'm asked all the time . . . but I never say . . . it was a lot of work to get through the day . . . It was really something to have three children and also try to work. It was a lot of physical work. I could never carry a child, even when they were very little . . . I had to have ways to hoist them. So here they help each other. They are happy . . . it is very tender," (Wye, The Prints of Louise Bourgeois, New York, 1994, page 234).
