Louis le Brocquy HRHA

Born 1916

Louis le Brocquy was born in Dublin in 1916.  He left Ireland, and his grandfather's business, in 1938 to become a painter. Self – taught, he studied paintings in museums in London, Paris, Venice and Geneva.  Returning to Dublin in 1940 he helped found the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1943. In 1946 he began his long association with Gimpel Fils and settled in London, where he worked for twelve years.  During this period he began to exhibit internationally, winning a major prize at the Venice Biennale in 1956. 

In 1962 le Brocquy was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Dublin, in 1988 by the National University of Ireland and by the Dublin City University in 1999. In 1975 he was made Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur and in 1996, Officier des Arts et des Lettres.  He was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1994.  In 1998 the artist was awarded the first Glen Dimplex prize for a sustained contribution to the arts in Ireland. 

The artist now lives and works in Ireland.  Important illustrated works by le Brocquy include Kinsella's renowned translation of The Tain in 1969, Andrew Carpenter's Eight Irish Writers, 1981 with drawings of Yeats, Synge, Joyce, Stuart, Beckett, Kinsella, Montague and Heaney. In 1986 he illustrated Joyce's Dubliners and, in 1988 Beckett's valedictory work, Stirrings Still. In 1988 he designed the set and costumes for Waiting for Godot, produced by the Gate Theatre, Dublin.  In 1996 a major retrospective exhibition Paintings: 1939-1996 was held at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.  Louis le Brocquy works are to be found in the most important museums and galleries of the world including Guggenheim Museum, New York, Etat Francais, Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Musée Picasso, Antibes, Tate Gallery, London, Vatican Museums, Rome, Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Hirschorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.