Louis le Brocquy
Medb relieving herself (1969) by le Brocquy
Born(1916-11-10)10 November 1916
Dublin, Ireland
Died25 April 2012(2012-04-25) (aged 95)
Dublin, Ireland
NationalityIrish
EducationSelf-taught
Known forPainting, Drawing, Sculpture, Printmaking, Ceramics, Tapestry, Illustration, Design
Notable workA Family
The Tain illustrations
AwardsPremio Acquisto Internationale, Venice Biennale, 1956
Saoi, 1993

Louis le Brocquy HRHA ([lwi lə bʁɔki]; 10 November 1916 – 25 April 2012) was an Irish painter born in Dublin to Albert and Sybil le Brocquy. His work received many accolades in a career that spanned some seventy years of creative practice. In 1956, he represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale, winning the Premio Acquisito Internationale (a once-off award when the event was acquired by the Nestle Corporation) with A Family (National Gallery of Ireland),[1] subsequently included in the historic exhibition Fifty Years of Modern Art Brussels, World Fair 1958.[2] The same year he married the Irish painter Anne Madden and left London to work in the French Midi.

Education

Le Brocquy was educated at St Gerard's School, studied chemistry at Kevin Street Technical School in 1934, and then Trinity College Dublin.[3]

Work

Le Brocquy is widely acclaimed for his evocative "Portrait Heads" of literary figures and fellow artists, which include William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, and his friends Samuel Beckett, Francis Bacon and Seamus Heaney. Towards the end of his life, le Brocquy's early "Tinker" subjects and Grey period "Family" paintings attracted attention on the international marketplace, placing le Brocquy within a very select group of British and Irish artists whose works commanded prices in excess of £1 million during their lifetimes, a group that includes Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Frank Auerbach, and Francis Bacon.[4]

The artist's work is represented in numerous public collections from the Guggenheim, New York to the Tate Modern, London. In Ireland, he is honoured as the first and only painter to be included during his lifetime in the Permanent Irish Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland.[5] Le Brocquy died on 25 April 2012 and was survived by his daughter Seyre from his first marriage (1938–1948) to Jean Stoney, and his two grandsons John-Paul and David; his second wife Anne Madden whom he married in 1958,[6] and their two sons, Pierre and Alexis.[7][8]

Le Brocquy designed the covers for the albums Lark in the Morning and The Rising of the Moon.[9]

Le Brocquy illustrated Thomas Kinsella's 1969 translation of Táin Bó Cúailnge. In this series of illustrations, Le Brocquy developed a distinctive style which alluded to cave painting, Rorschach tests and calligraphy.[10][11] The Louis le Brocquy Táin illustrations are the works, and style of work, most closely associated with the artist in Ireland.

Monographs

Catalogues (selected)

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ Louis le Brocquy represented Ireland at the 1956 Venice Biennale alongside the sculptor Hilary Heron. His painting A Family was awarded the Premio Acquisito Internationale, and was subsequently included in the exhibition Mostra dei Premiatialla XXVIII Biennale, Messina, 1956.
  2. ^ The exhibition "Cinquante Ans d'Art Moderne" was an ambitious attempt to trace and categorise the development of painting and sculpture from Cézanne and Rodin to date (World Fair, Brussels, 1958)
  3. ^ Blasco, Ivan (1 July 2011). "Portrait of an Irish Artist: Louis le Brocquy".
  4. ^ The painting Tinker Woman with Newspaper (1947–48) set a world auction record for an Irish living artist, Sotheby's, Irish Sale, London, May 2000. The price (Stg£1.15m) placed le Brocquy within this very select group of British and Irish artists whose works commanded prices in excess of £1 million during their lifetimes. http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/dept/DepartmentGlobal.jsp?dept_id=157
  5. ^ The painting A Family was presented as a gift to the Gallery by businessman, collector, and chair of the board of the National Gallery of Ireland, Lochlann Quinn, in 2001, using section 1003 of the Taxes Consolidation Act on donations of objects of historical and cultural pre-eminence (1997). He had purchased it for Stg£1.7million. Dr. Síghle Bhreathnach-Lynch, Curator of Irish Art, National Gallery of Ireland, has observed: 'Presented as a gift in 2001 to the National Gallery, A Family is rightly recognized as a seminal painting in the history of 20th-century Irish art. It is not only an important transitional work in the artist's oeuvre but one anticipating modernism as an everyday style in Irish art. All of this is implicitly acknowledged in its being on display to the public. To date, the exception to the policy of only displaying work by dead artists in the Gallery is the continuous acquisition of portraits by contemporary artists for the National Portrait Collection. Le Brocquy was the only artist to have had a work on show as part of the permanent collection during his lifetime.' Louis le Brocquy's A Family : 'An unwholesome and satanic distortion of natural beauty', CIRCA Art Magazine, 2002. (Quote 'An unwholesome and satanic distortion of natural beauty', The Irish Times, letter from "Verdad" of Co. Dublin, 6 March 1952).
  6. ^ "Louis le Brocquy HRHA 1916 - 2012, Irish Artist". adams.ie. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  7. ^ "Artists le Brocquy dies at his home". Irish Examiner. 25 April 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  8. ^ McNay, Michael (26 April 2012). "Louis le Brocquy obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  9. ^ Mountain of the Women, page 145-6
  10. ^ Séaghdha, Darach Ó (24 November 2019). "The Irish For: The enduring genius of artist Louis le Brocquy". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  11. ^ "Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1969 – The Táin, by Thomas Kinsella and Louis le Brocquy". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 October 2023.

External links

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