Femme Maison

Mediums: oil, ink, canvas.
Location: private collection.

During 1945-47, Louise Bourgeois created a series of paintings and graphic works under the general name “Femme Maison”, which is translated from French as “housewife”. At that time, she got married and got three children; this forced the artist to combine a career with housekeeping. In her work, Bourgeois depicted a woman with a house instead of her head and upper part of body, creating a shocking impression of suppression and threat. Architectural motifs are often found in the works of the artist, who considered the house to be both a refuge from the outside world and a cage from which it is difficult to escape. The works of the cycle were of great importance for the development of the feminist movement in art, as they directly affected the question of the position of a female artist in society.