Provenance
Private Collection (acquired directly from the artist)
Private Collection, Europe
Phillips, London, 10 October 2012, lot 11
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Exhibited
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Contrepoint 2: De l’objet d’art à la sculpture – Porcelaines contemporaines, 1 December 2005 - 20 February 2006 (another example exhibited)
London, The Wallace Collection, From Jean Arp To Louise Bourgeois: Modern Artists At Sèvres, 15 June - 10 September 2006 (another example exhibited)
Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Louise Bourgeois, 5 March - 2 June 2008, p. 30 (another example illustrated and exhibited)
Limoges, Contrario Galerie, Sculpture au Féminin, 3 July - 27 September 2009, p. 57 (another example illustrated and exhibited, incorrectly dated 1998 – 99)
London, Phillips, A Very Short History of Contemporary Sculpture, 6 October - 31 October 2014, p. 29 (another example illustrated and exhibited)
Literature
Louise Bourgeois: Porcelain Contemporaines, exh. cat., Connaissance des Arts, Paris, 2005, no. 269, pp. 10 – 11 (another example illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
Delicate and powerful, Nature Study is a challenging, graceful work exemplifying Louise Bourgeois visionary and critical concern with organic, provocative forms. At the pinnacle of the artist’s creative output, a culmination of forms and ideas spanning a significant period of the twentieth century, Nature Study presents themes that concerned the artist throughout her career. Immensely psychological, addressing issues which had long preoccupied the artist, Nature Study is a self-portrait, embodying Bourgeois’ status as a nurturing mother, combining themes of maternity, family, alienation, identity, gender and mortality. The present work is from an edition of six plus two artist’s proofs in porcelain, one of which one is housed in the Musée du Louvre and another in the esteemed Goetz Collection in Munich. This seminal work is from a celebrated series first conceived in plaster in 1984 and thereafter executed in a variety of dense materials such as marble, bronze, wax and rubber.

Simultaneously fragile and fierce in its sculptural volume, Nature Study, executed in Sèvres porcelain, presents twin poles of humanity. The combination of exposed ambisexual genitalia and the delicacy of the materials epitomises the artist’s assertion that ‘we are all vulnerable in some way…and we are all male-female' (Louise Bourgeois in Louise Bourgeois: Nature Study: An Essay, exh. cat., Serpentine Gallery, London, 1985, p. 2). Pushing the boundaries and traditional categorisation of gender through the assemblage of forms, Bourgeois invokes the surrealist collage of female Dada protagonist Hannah Höch.

Transforming her own intensely emotional psychological states into extraordinary physical forms, Bourgeois’ voluptuous sculpture radiates energy, a vehicle of sensation and autonomous flesh. Presenting Bourgeois' anima and persona in parallel, the creature fluctuates between personal psychological and maternal exploration and the universally symbolic language of the body, an object in turmoil. The sphynx-like figure, neither human nor animal, is a fantastical creation, both deeply internal and yet inescapably external. The ‘literalisations of dreams and nightmares, the beautiful and erotic and the horrendous and neurotic' (Joanna Ekman, Louise Bourgeois, The Locus of Memory, Works 1982–1993, New York, 1994, p. 58). Reflecting the wistfulness of her 1947 totemic figures in wood, the Personages, the present work is an evolution of earlier themes, invoking the homesickness and nostalgia evident throughout Bourgeois’ oeuvre. Embracing metaphors of evolution and family, personality and imprisonment, deceit and vengeance, sexual union and gender, Nature Study embodies various states of being, intensely private, yet created for showcase, raising yet more questions on the psychological conflicts with identity.

Utilising the skill, and invoking the cultural and historical importance of the Sèvres porcelain factory, previously patronized by French royalty such as Louis XV, Nature Study is executed in flawless biscuit porcelain. A technical challenge to the masters of the medium due to its monumental scale, Bourgeois played a major role in the revival of the factory in contemporary culture. Fragments of the body reveal themselves in the surface of the porcelain, through the curious, hermaphroditic creature traversing numerous boundaries.

Characterised by ambiguities, the overt and conflicted familiarity of the form addresses Bourgeois’ fostering nature - the nurturing mother holding on to and protecting what she loves. The symbolic creation raises questions of identity, as the figure, presented as a self-portrait, is replete with interpretative probabilities. A testament to the deeply personal, highly anxious and openly celebrated talent of its master, Nature Study opens the viewer to the complexity of personality in the artist's oeuvre, in turn cementing its importance in the almost 80 year career of Louise Bourgeois. Admirable in its solid form, the masterful creation in a historical medium with its exploration of the artist’s psyche, remains mysterious in its sheer elegance and beauty.
Artist Biography
Louise Bourgeois
French-American • 1911 - 2010
Known for her idiosyncratic style, Louise Bourgeois was a pioneering and iconic figure of twentieth and early twenty-first century art. Untied to an art historical movement, Bourgeois was a singular voice, both commanding and quiet.
Bourgeois was a prolific printmaker, draftsman, sculptor and painter. She employed diverse materials including metal, fabric, wood, plaster, paper and paint in a range of scale — both monumental and intimate. She used recurring themes and subjects (animals, insects, architecture, the figure, text and abstraction) as form and metaphor to explore the fragility of relationships and the human body. Her artworks are meditations of emotional states: loneliness, jealousy, pride, anger, fear, love and longing.
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14

Louise Bourgeois

Nature Study

stamped with the artist's initials, Sèvres mark and dated ‘LB2004’ on the reverse of the base
biscuit porcelain
71.8 x 41.3 x 30.5 cm (28 1/4 x 16 1/4 x 12 in.)
Conceived in 1996, cast in 2004, this work is from an edition of 6 plus 2 artist’s proofs and was produced by Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, Paris.

Estimate
£600,000 - 800,000 ♠

Sold for £725,000

Contact Specialist
Henry Highley
Specialist, Head of Evening Sale
+ 44 20 7318 4061 hhighley@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London Auction 29 June 2017

1
Thomas Schütte
Kleiner Geist
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ♠
Sold for £389,000
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2
Wolfgang Tillmans
Freischwimmer #84
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡♠
Sold for £605,000
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3
Richard Prince
Untitled (Cowboy)
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £245,000
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4
Jonas Wood
Head Up
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5
Rebecca Warren
Fascia III
Estimate £140,000 - 180,000 ♠
Sold for £329,000
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6
Keith Haring
Untitled
Estimate £1,200,000 - 1,800,000 ‡
Sold for £2,333,000
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7
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £1,500,000 - 2,000,000 ‡♠
Sold for £1,565,000
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8
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (682-4)
Estimate £2,200,000 - 2,800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £2,389,000
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9
Georg Baselitz
Ein Werktätiger
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠
Sold for £485,000
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10
Sigmar Polke
Ohne Titel (Porträtist)
Estimate £700,000 - 1,000,000 ♠
Sold for £1,085,000
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11
Peter Doig
Tunnel Painting (Country-rock)
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ‡♠
Sold for £1,157,000
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12
Mark Bradford
Drag Her to the Path
Estimate £1,800,000 - 2,500,000 ‡
Sold for £2,277,000
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13
Bridget Riley
Rill
Estimate £1,200,000 - 1,800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £1,445,000
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14
Louise Bourgeois
Nature Study
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ♠
Sold for £725,000
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15
Oscar Murillo
Untitled
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ♠
Sold for £185,000
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16
Sterling Ruby
SP04
Estimate £350,000 - 450,000
Sold for £461,000
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17
Albert Oehlen
Abyss
Estimate £1,000,000 - 1,500,000 ♠
Sold for £2,165,000
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18
Gerhard Richter
Yusuf
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ♠
Sold for £941,000
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19
Bridget Riley
Orange Paired
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £821,000
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20
Damien Hirst
Ergocalciferol
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ♠
Sold for £437,000
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21
Jan Schoonhoven
R72-19
Estimate £60,000 - 90,000 ♠
Sold for £197,000
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22
Lucio Fontana
Concetto Spaziale
Estimate £1,000,000 - 1,500,000 ♠
Sold for £1,025,000
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23
Enrico Castellani
Superficie bianca
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡♠
Sold for £305,000
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24
Michelangelo Pistoletto
4 Gabbie
Estimate £1,200,000 - 1,800,000 ♠
Sold for £1,325,000
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25
César
Compression de tonneaux
Estimate £250,000 - 300,000 ♠
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26
Fernand Léger
Composition à la fleur
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000
Sold for £305,000
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27
Sherrie Levine
Dada
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Sold for £305,000
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28
Robert Gober
Rat Bait
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡
Sold for £125,000
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29
Joe Bradley
Hat trick
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡
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30
Christopher Wool
Untitled (D305)
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡
Sold for £293,000
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31
This lot is no longer available.
32
Jonas Wood
Untitled (Red and Black)
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡
Sold for £137,000
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20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London Auction 29 June 2017

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Provenance

Exhibited

Literature

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Louise Bourgeois

14

Louise Bourgeois

Nature Study

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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