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The McClelland Collection
47
Louis le Brocquy HRHA (1916-2012)
TRAVELLERS, 1948
Aubusson tapestry, Atelier Tabard Frères et Soeurs, France; (from an edition of 9)
signed in the weave lower right
70¼ x 39¼in. (178.44 x 99.70cm)
Provenance:
Collection of George and Maura McClelland
Literature
The Hunter Gatherer - The Collection of George and Maura McClelland, The Irish Museum of Modern Art,
Dublin, 2004, p.88 (full page illustration)
In the years 1945-50, Louis le Brocquy was particularly drawn to the subject of Travellers, producing
a substantial range of artworks - paintings, sketches and tapestries - exploring various aspects of the
theme. As an artist, le Brocquy felt an affinity with the ‘outsider’ status of travellers, empathising with
their exclusion from settled society, and admiring what he saw as their closeness to nature and lack of
inhibition as well as their peripatetic, independent lifestyle. He was fascinated too by their rituals, and the
symbolism like a secret language, conveyed through marks and arrangements of sticks.
Le Brocquy had a special regard for strong female figures, and often spoke of how his mother Sybil set an
important example for him, not least by bringing him as a child to witness the poverty of parts of the city.
(1) Le Brocquy’s admiration for maternal figures extended also to the women of the Traveller community,
addressed in a number of his artworks, including the iconic painting Travelling Woman with Newspaper
(1947-8), and the present tapestry Travellers (1948), which is understood to be the first of the tapestry
series. (2) The artist explained that when he was based at Tullamore to carry out a private commission, he
took the opportunity to observe and to sketch the travellers encamped nearby and noted in particular
the role of women within the community. (3)
In his tapestry designs of the 1940s and 50s, carried out by Atelier Tabard
Frères et Souers at Aubusson, le Brocquy drew on his knowledge of classical mythology, and several
examples involve the symbolism of the sun and the moon. Invoked in the writings of various
philosophers who influenced Modernist thinking, the sun or Apollo, was associated with reason
and logic, while the moon, typically personified by the huntress goddess Diana, could signify earthy
nature and human emotion. As with many Modernist artists of the time, le Brocquy was interested in
oppositions. In the Travellers tapestry, the crescent moon appears in the upper left of the image, and
is reflected in the curls of the woman’s hair and also in the patterning on her chemise. The woman is
flanked on one side by the faun-like figure of a male, who clasps her arm, and on the other by a naked
child clutched to her hip. This composition indicates something of the woman’s prescribed role in the
family at that time. She is presented as confined but also pivotal, providing the focal point of the image.
Le Brocquy was aware of contemporary developments in art, and while the influence of Picasso and of
Lurçat have been detected in the Travellers tapestry in terms of both aesthetic and design, this work is
arguably as significant for demonstrating le Brocquy’s interest in contemporary allegory, here relating
Modernist philosophy and classical mythological symbolism to the rituals and way of life he observed as
a local phenomenon in Ireland at the time.
Dr. Yvonne Scott
August 2016