Gouache on paper

59.7 x 45.7 cm

The Good Mothers is one of Louise Bourgeois’s gouache paintings made late in her career, three years before her passing at the age of 98. A surreal portrayal of two feminine figures defined by their multiple pendulous breasts and bulging wombs, their bodies are exposed in their transfigured glory as their bold outlines bleed and coalesce into the paper, forming organic marks that only strengthen the corporeality of the image. The exaggerated and abstracted forms portrayed in The Good Mothersthus delves into Bourgeois’s desire to compensate for her feelings of inadequacy as a mother upon the birth of her children, as she commented, “There I was, a wife and mother, and I was afraid of my family… afraid not to measure up.” As the depicted forms bleed into each other, this work deviates from her usual portrayals of the feminine figure as a lone form. Instead, the work draws parallels between her motherhood and her close relationship with her own mother, who passed away when Bourgeois was 20 years old, rekindling her pursuit of attachment.