Artist: Louise Bourgeois
Title: Henriette
Medium: Lithograph and Digital Print in Colors with Paper, Foamcore, Metal and String on Arches Paper
Image Size: 41" x 28.25"
Sheet Size: 46.5" x 31.5"
Frame Size: 49.5" x 34.75" x 2.25"
Year: 1998
Inscription: Initialed and numbered on lower margin
Edition: 21/50 + 29 A.P., co-printed at SOLO Impression and WOW Digital Imaging, New York, published by SOLO Impression, New York, with blindstamp.
Documentation: Includes Gallery Certificate of Authenticity
Louise Bourgeois's Henriette (1998) is a complex and evocative print that merges traditional and digital processes with sculptural elements. Combining lithography and digital printing with the physicality of paper, foamcore, metal, and string, the work expands the two-dimensional medium into a hybrid form that reflects Bourgeois's ongoing interest in memory, identity, and the body.
The composition features abstracted anatomical forms and vertical symmetry suggestive of the human figure, rendered in subdued yet assertive tones. The use of string and metal evokes themes of tension, support, and confinement—motifs that recur throughout Bourgeois's six-decade practice. The title Henriette refers to the artist's younger sister, and the work is widely interpreted as a meditation on sibling relationships, female identity, and personal history.
As with much of Bourgeois's work, Henriette blurs the line between psychological narrative and formal exploration. The artist's use of nontraditional materials emphasizes the tactile and emotional qualities of the piece, while the fusion of printmaking techniques with sculptural elements reflects her experimental approach to art-making.
Printed in an edition of 50, with an additional 29 artist's proofs, this piece was co-produced by SOLO Impression and WOW Digital Imaging in New York and bears the publisher's blindstamp. It stands as a compelling example of Bourgeois's late-career innovation and her enduring commitment to exploring deeply personal subject matter through varied media and formats.
About Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) was a French-American artist whose psychologically charged work explored themes of memory, trauma, gender, and the body. Working across sculpture, drawing, installation, and printmaking, Bourgeois created a profoundly original visual language that bridged the modern and contemporary eras. Her career spanned more than seven decades, and she is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 into a family of tapestry restorers. Her early exposure to art and craftsmanship had a lasting influence on her work, particularly her interest in textiles and domestic materials. She studied mathematics at the Sorbonne before turning to art, training at the École des Beaux-Arts and working with artists including Fernand Léger. In 1938, she married American art historian Robert Goldwater and emigrated to New York, where she would live and work for the rest of her life.
Although Bourgeois began exhibiting in the 1940s, her work was often considered difficult to categorize and remained largely outside the dominant movements of mid-century American art. It was not until the 1980s—when she was in her seventies—that she gained international recognition. Her intensely personal work, which addressed emotions ranging from fear and anger to desire and tenderness, found resonance in an art world increasingly attuned to identity, feminism, and the psychological dimensions of creative expression.
Bourgeois's sculptures are best known for their visceral forms and symbolic resonance. She frequently used materials such as wood, bronze, latex, fabric, and found objects to create works that suggest bodily fragmentation, architectural structures, or biological systems. Her iconic Spider series, initiated in the 1990s, is a powerful metaphor for protection and motherhood, inspired by her own mother, who was a skilled weaver. The monumental Maman (1999), a 30-foot-tall bronze spider, has been exhibited around the world and has become one of her most recognized works.
In addition to sculpture, Bourgeois had a lifelong engagement with drawing and printmaking. She often turned to these media to process memory and emotion, incorporating text and figuration in works that are diaristic and introspective. Her later works, such as the Cells series—enclosed installations that evoke memory spaces—combine her sculptural and narrative sensibilities with psychological intensity.
Throughout her career, Bourgeois addressed themes such as childhood trauma, sexuality, motherhood, and the complexities of female identity. She frequently drew upon her own life experiences, including her fraught relationship with her father and the loss of her mother during adolescence. Her work resists fixed interpretations, inviting viewers into emotionally charged environments that are at once deeply personal and universally resonant.
In 1982, the Museum of Modern Art in New York held a retrospective of her work—the first for a woman artist in the institution's history. Over the following decades, Bourgeois received numerous honors and accolades, and her work has been featured in major exhibitions around the world. She continued to create art until her death in 2010 at the age of 98.
Louise Bourgeois's legacy endures not only in her expansive body of work but also in the doors she opened for future generations of artists exploring themes of identity, emotion, and the human condition.
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