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The Tomb of a Young Person stamped with initials, foundry mark and number 'L. B. 1/6 MAF' (above the lower edge of the taller element) painted bronze Height: 453/4 in. (116.2 cm.) Width: 4 in. (10.1 cm.) Depth: 2 5/8 in. (6.7 cm.) Executed in wood in 1947-1949; cast in bronze at a later date PROVENANCE Robert Miller Gallery, New York. Galeria Ramis Barquet, Monterrey, Mexico. LITERATURE St. Louis Museum, Louise Bourgeois, The Personages, June-August 1994, p. 52, no. 15 (wood verison illustrated in color). Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Louise Bourgeois Memoria y Arquitectura, November 1999-February 2000, pl. 13 (wood version illustrated). EXHIBITION Monterrey, Mexico, Galeria Ramis Barquet, Louise Bourgeois, October-November 1993 (illustrated in color). NOTES The wood version of this present work was included in Bourgeois's first solo sculpture show in October 1949 at the Peridot Gallery. She showed seventeen pieces made of simply yet artfully constructed upright beams and poles, which would later be known as "personages." One critic commented on them: "Although the human form is reduced to elemental terms in these works, great variety of mood and gesture is conveyed by subtle changes in contour and slight inclinations of the body." (Cited in D. Wye, Louise Bourgeois, exh. cat., New York, 1982, p. 18.) These personages have a totemic quality where Bourgeois has transformed qualities of the living into inanimate matter, thus creating a vital presence in her sculptures. Wye has observed the connection between Bourgeois and the primitive mentality: "Bourgeois's concept of sculpture pertains to the vivid clarity of her emotions and the need for concreteness in their release. For Bourgeois a plank of wood can, on some level, be identified as a replacement for a specific person rather than as a symbol of that person. The impulse to work on this level of transference and embodiment is her link to the primitive world." ( Ibid, p. 19.) In fact, this particular work was borne from the artist's anxiety of a mother over the well-being of her child. She has stated, " The Tomb of a Young Person expresses fear, a kind of protective exorcism for the health of my children." (Quoted in M. Bernadac, Louise Bourgeois, Paris, 1996, p. 54.) Fig. 1 Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1959 SALESROOM NOTICE Please note the work is stamped with initials, foundry mark and number 'L.B. 1/6 MAF' (above the lower edge of the taller element).