Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. In this gouache painting, the artist depicts the cycle of motherhood, birth and rebirth. The anonymous figure is painted without identifying characteristics, serving instead as a representation of all women as opposed to any individual. Bourgeois’s use of the color red is a recurring characteristic of her artistic practice. The artist employed red often in her work in order to refer to the extremes of human emotion. In a statement first published in 1992, Bourgeois said: ‘Red is an affirmation at any cost – regardless of the dangers in fighting – of contradiction, of aggression. It’s symbolic of the intensity of the emotions involved.’ (Quoted in Askew and d’Offay 2013, p.85.) In her later years, Bourgeois explored these themes of strength, sexuality and vulnerability through this body of gouache paintings.