Woman With Packages
Wood
1949, 65" x 18" x 12"

         'Woman with Packages' is from a period, about 1945-55, when Bourgeois created what she called, 'Personages.' These were figures sculpted of wood and allowed an outlet for the artist's personal issues. Many of these sculptures deal with the domestic responsibility of women. The 'packages,' seem to be children hanging from the main stem of the sculpture and they create a sense of heaviness.
        They could also be emotional baggage that a woman carries around. The fertile, generous and working woman is present in this sculpture as well as in Nature Study, Breasted Woman, and Pink Fountain.
         There is also anxiety expressed in this sculpture, by the uncomfortable packages. Bourgeois grew up in a household where her father had many affairs that were ignored by her mother. Her father allowed one mistress to move into the house, saying she was there to teach the children English. Bourgeois's family home, the network of relationships among the members of the family, and the child's anguish make up the, 'childhood motivation,' which are the basis for her art.
         Bourgeois cast this sculpture in bronze in 1995.

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