LOUIS LE BROCQUY, H.R.H.A. | Child Assuming a Shawl

Kraushaar Galleries, New York, where purchased by the present owner's mother in the early 1950s

San Francisco, Museum of Art, New Irish Painters, 1950 (lent by Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston);
New York, Cornell University, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, 1995 (lent by May Ellen Rossiter)

The board appears to be sound. There are some fine areas of craquelure to the canvas, only visible upon close inspection, which appear stable. Faint artist's pinholes in the lower corners. The work has had a light clean recently and the work appears in good overall condition. UV light reveals some minor flecks of retouching in the lower right corner. Held in a simple wood frame, ready to hang.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

We are grateful to Pierre le Brocquy for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work. This rare, early work which has recently come to light belongs to le Brocquy's pivotal 'Tinker' period from 1945-47 when the artist encountered the travelling way of life in Connemara. He became utterly absorbed in a community whose customs and languare had not been eroded by modern society, and it stimulated some of the most critical paintings of not only his career but in Irish art of the century.

The present, intimate oil is based on an earlier version entitled A Child Anticipates a Woman's Shawl which le Brocquy showed at his second studio exhibition in Dublin in  1945 titled 'Sketches and Studies'. A contemporary review in the Irish Times by Arthur Power declared: 'He has the delicacy of the orientals and, in his figures, the realism of the modern painters, yet underneath lies a firm structure. His constant search is for beauty' (23 April 1945). The soft use of colour is also a response to the light of the area which gave a distinct mood. As James White of the National Gallery of Ireland noted: 'The curiously liquid light of the West of Ireland affected Louis le Brocquy's whole vision, and its influence can still be seen in his love for greenish shades, in his soft colouring and in a certain haziness which, in water-colour especially, tones down all his contrasts’ ('Contemporary Irish Artists (VI): Louis le Brocquy', Envoy, vol.2, no.6, Dublin, 6 May 1950, p.56).