Louis le Brocquy, H.R.H.A. b.1916

le Brocquy met Anne Madden in November 1956 and they later married in 1959 at Chartres Cathedral.  During this time, she was undergoing dramatic surgery on her spine and her fragile state both raised his awareness of the human condition and also prompted him to explore ideas concerning the fundamental nature of human existence and the dichotomies of life and death, being and non-being. The present work is strongly related to Young Woman (Anne) (Private Collection) also executed in 1957 and is amongst his earliest explorations on these themes where the female form has been reduced to an elusive shadowy presence.