The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of October 11, 2026

A dark brown, bronze sculpture depicts a reclining woman with an elongated body. She rests her head on her right hand, elbow propped beneath her. Her torso and legs are enveloped in raised, parallel lines. Her left arm extends along her hip, while one leg bends upward with the foot raised and the other extends to the right. Her eyes and lips are closed, and she has a serene expression.

Reclining Woman

c. 1977

Meera Mukherjee

(Indian, 1923–1998)
India
Bronze
17 x 60 cm (6 11/16 x 23 5/8 in.)
Gift of Phyllis Granoff 2023.58
Location: 242A Ancient India

Did You Know?

The artist Meera Mukherjee studied painting in Munich in 1953.

Description

Meera Mukherjee chose to portray a confident woman, unencumbered by jewelry or an elaborate hairstyle. Instead of a religious or political figure, she elevated an image of a woman relaxing quietly in reverie, whom one could encouter in everyday life.

The sculptor made the garments by rolling thick strings of wax and laying them over a wax body. The total assemblage was then cast in bronze using the lost-wax process, which she learned from bronze casters of Indigenous communities in central India and Nepal.
  • 1977–1979
    Collection of the Artist, sold to Phyllis Granoff
    1979–2023
    Phyllis Granoff, New Haven, CT, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2023–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Reclining Woman|url=false|author=Meera Mukherjee|year=c. 1977|access-date=11 October 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2023.58