Louis Le Brocquy HRHA

Louis Le Brocquy was born in Dublin in 1916. He studied chemistry at Trinity College, Dublin, with art originally being a side interest. In 1938, le Brocquy left Ireland to study major art collections across Europe, a process of self-education from modern masters which would shape his early work.

Le Brocquy returned to Ireland in 1943, during this time he became a founding member of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. In 1947, he moved to London, and within the same year held his first solo exhibition at the Gimpel Fils Gallery. Le Brocquy began exhibiting international, going on to represent Ireland at the 1956 Venice Biennale and winning the Premio Acquisito Internationale with A Family (1951). The painting was subsequently included in the seminal 1958 exhibition, Fifty Years of Modern Art, Brussels World Fair. His work is remembered particularly by a series of portrait studies of predominantly Irish literary figures and artists, including William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, and Francis Bacon. Similarly, le Brocquy's series of illustrations for Thomas Kinsella’s 1969 translation of The Táin represented a distinctive style associated with the artist.

Le Brocquy returned to Ireland in 2000 and lived with his wife, Anne Madden, who was also an artist. His work can be found in museums, galleries and private collections internationally including the National Gallery of Ireland, the Tate in London, and the Guggenheim in New York.