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Dimensions: measurements 74 1/2 x 7 7/8 x 6 1/2 in. 189.2 x 20 x 15.5 cm. alternate measurements with base: 75 3/4 x 17 3/4 x 12 1/4 192.4 x 50.8 x 31.1 cm
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Provenance: Charles and Rena Glickman, New York (acquired directly from the artist)
Xavier Fourcade, Inc., New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 1981
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Exhibited:
New York, Peridot Gallery, Louise Bourgeois: Sculptures , October 1950 (wood version)
New York, Xavier Fourcade Gallery, Louise Bourgeois, Sculpture 1941-1953. Plus One New Piece , September - October 1979 (bronze version, the present work)
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Notes:
This work was cast in 1959 and is from an edition of 6 with only two casts made to date. The bronze version is based on a wood sculpture Sleeping Figure from 1950.
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF BARBARA JACOBSON
October 1949 marked Louise Bourgeois' sculptural debut with a solo show at the Peridot Gallery in New York. Bourgeois had felt inhibited by the limitations of two-dimensional painting and turned to sculpture to articulate her motivations. Sleeping Figure, the wooden version, was included in her second solo exhibition at the Peridot Gallery in 1950, and was her first work acquired for the Museum of Modern Art in New York by the director, Alfred Barr. It is from the artistÂ?s important series of Personages that represent the human form reduced to elemental terms yet imbued with great variety in mood and gesture. In 1959 the Museum of Modern Art gave Bourgeois permission to cast the work in bronze. As with many of her pieces, this work was intended to be cast in an edition of six with one artistÂ?s proof. There have only been two bronze cast to date; the present work and another which joined the wood version in the Museum of Modern Art collection.
