Louis le Brocquy, H.R.H.A. (1916-2012)

Anne Crookshank discusses the artist's figure pictures of this period, 'The form tends to concentrate towards the centre of the canvas and to build up as though revealing an image which was already inherent in its surface, an image which grows up out of the whiteness of the canvas like a human being groping its way to full reality. In this way le Brocquy seems to be able to convey the essential and almost physical presence of a human being without in any way detailing external appearance. These white pictures communicate a mysterious, poetic vision with a feeling of serenity and peace. But the longer one is in contemplation of them, the greater the sense of inner movement and disquiet conveyed by the tension between the crispness of emerged features and those fluid washes which hold this central encrusted paint. It is the inner vitality created by this tension which makes these paintings live as great works of art' (see A. Crookshank, exhibition catalogue, Louis le Brocquy: A retrospective selection of oil paintings 1939-1966, Dublin, Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, 1966, p. 9).

P. le B.