61
Louis le Brocquy HRHA (1916-2012)
Estimate:
€15,000 - €20,000
Passed
Live Auction
Important Irish Art
Size
14 by 10.50in. (35.6 by 26.7cm)
Description
Title: NUDE STUDY, 1964
Note: The year that Nude Study was painted, 1964, marked something of a turning point in the work of Louis le Brocquy. Exploration of his output throughout his life reveals significant reappraisals from time to time indicating periods of focus on identifiable, often separable themes and methods of representation. Yet it is also evident that his entire output is traversed and connected by core interests and concerns. By 1964, le Brocquy had been working for some time on a series of works collectively entitled 'Presences'. These each comprise a human form that betrays something of the vulnerability of existence, both physical and psychological. Nude Study conforms to the general chromatic range of this body of works which explore tones from whites, through greys, to blacks, sometimes with flashes of colour. The human forms in the series - like Nude Study - are suggested rather than descriptive, a characteristic that emerges increasingly in his depictions of humanity. While a figurative element provides the focus of the image, it seems to emerge or dissolve - almost, but not quite, tangible, reflecting the artist's own observation: 'When you ae painting you are trying to discover, to uncover, to reveal'. In 1964, the artist and his family were based in Carros, in the south of France. A photograph of him by Edward Quinn, entitled 'Louis le Brocquy at his studio. Carros 1964' depicts the artist at work. A large 'Presences' painting can just be made out on his easel while, behind him, the backs of stretched canvases can be seen propped against the studio wall. Among them is a small canvas with an armature similar to that of Nude Study. It has often been relayed that 1964 was the year that le Brocquy visited the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. This anthropological museum is understood to have sparked the next phase in his work - the artist's celebrated Head series. Commencing with ancestral heads that allude to anonymous figures from the past, and evolving to his portrait images comprising multiple studies of well-known artists and writers including James Joyce, WB Yeats, and Samuel Beckett, among others, le Brocquy found a way to address the complexity of creativity. The head and the body are often seen as separate zones of existence, however, in the work of Louis le Brocquy, these are projected as vitally interconnected fields of sensation and imagination.Dr Yvonne Scott,September 2024
Frame dimensions: 19 by 16in. (48.3 by 40.6cm)
Note: The year that Nude Study was painted, 1964, marked something of a turning point in the work of Louis le Brocquy. Exploration of his output throughout his life reveals significant reappraisals from time to time indicating periods of focus on identifiable, often separable themes and methods of representation. Yet it is also evident that his entire output is traversed and connected by core interests and concerns. By 1964, le Brocquy had been working for some time on a series of works collectively entitled 'Presences'. These each comprise a human form that betrays something of the vulnerability of existence, both physical and psychological. Nude Study conforms to the general chromatic range of this body of works which explore tones from whites, through greys, to blacks, sometimes with flashes of colour. The human forms in the series - like Nude Study - are suggested rather than descriptive, a characteristic that emerges increasingly in his depictions of humanity. While a figurative element provides the focus of the image, it seems to emerge or dissolve - almost, but not quite, tangible, reflecting the artist's own observation: 'When you ae painting you are trying to discover, to uncover, to reveal'. In 1964, the artist and his family were based in Carros, in the south of France. A photograph of him by Edward Quinn, entitled 'Louis le Brocquy at his studio. Carros 1964' depicts the artist at work. A large 'Presences' painting can just be made out on his easel while, behind him, the backs of stretched canvases can be seen propped against the studio wall. Among them is a small canvas with an armature similar to that of Nude Study. It has often been relayed that 1964 was the year that le Brocquy visited the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. This anthropological museum is understood to have sparked the next phase in his work - the artist's celebrated Head series. Commencing with ancestral heads that allude to anonymous figures from the past, and evolving to his portrait images comprising multiple studies of well-known artists and writers including James Joyce, WB Yeats, and Samuel Beckett, among others, le Brocquy found a way to address the complexity of creativity. The head and the body are often seen as separate zones of existence, however, in the work of Louis le Brocquy, these are projected as vitally interconnected fields of sensation and imagination.Dr Yvonne Scott,September 2024
Frame dimensions: 19 by 16in. (48.3 by 40.6cm)
Condition
Excellent condition.
Medium
oil on canvas
Signature
signed, dated, titled and with Dawson Gallery label on reverse
Provenance
Dawson Gallery, Dublin;Private collection
