WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART Monday 19 October 2020

55 Louis le Brocquy HRHA (1916-2012) TINKER MAN, 1947 drawing in carbon ink signed and dated lower left 25 by 19in. (63.5 by 48.3cm) Frame size: 30 by 22in. (76 by 56cm.) Provenance: Collection of Alan Breedon Malcolm Brush (1918-2009); His sale, Richard D. Hatch & Associates, North Carolina, 27 September 2008, Lot 603; Whyte’s, 2 March 2009, lot 70; Whence purchased by the present owner The present work is one of a series that resulted from the technical experiments that le Brocquy undertook while he was an instructor at the Central School of Arts & Crafts, London. Another example from this series is Child with Doll, Hommage a Jankel Adler, 1949 (Whyte’s, 28 April 2008, lot 53, sold €80,000) which, although combined with watercolour in that instance, also used a line created by drawing onto tracing paper and then using carbon-coated paper to transfer the drawing onto the nal page. The purpose of this technique was to sabotage the artist’s technical facility and thereby introduce an element of chance into his method. The resulting line – slightly blurred and lacking the con dent mark-making of the artist’s unadulterated hand – increases the undercurrent of unease that pervades the image. le Brocquy’s resulting experiments proved so successful that he later made a series lithographs based on the original images. The Tinker Period in le Brocquy’s oeuvre represents a very important and distinct body of work within the artist’s career spanning the years c.1945-1948. Tinker Man, 1947 is a striking example of the artist’s interpretation of the travelling community. Le Brocquy had an enthusiasm and passion for their independent and inimitable way of life after rst encountering them in the summer of 1945 near Tullamore, County O aly. Like John Millington Synge and artists on the Continent such as Picasso, le Brocquy’s interest in this particular society was born out of a wider re- discovery and renewed interest in “primitive” cultures. However, for le Brocquy the tinkers came to symbolise more; the individual’s struggle against ordered and settled culture and he drew parallels between their struggle and that of the artist. Tinker Man typi es the artist’s style from the period. Here a statuesque gure dominates the composition. There is a monumentality to this imposing, masculine form that exudes strength and grace. There is a suggestion of landscape beyond the man who appears at one with his environment. He gazes over his shoulder into the distance his left hand resting on his knee, his right arm appearing to be raised towards the top left corner of the composition. The lack of colour throws into focus the deeply expressive use of thin lines typical of the period, the harmony of tone and the dynamic quality of the composition composed of angular lines and geometric shapes. The original owner of this work was Alan Breedon Malcolm Brush, born in Dublin in 1918 lived in North Carolina from 1954 until his death in 2008. He owned a collection of over 30 Irish pictures, which included works by Jack Yeats, Louis le Brocquy and Gerald Dillon, all of which had been bought in Ireland in the late 1940s and early 1950s mainly from the Waddington Gallery, when Brush had lived in Drogheda, Co. Louth. The collection sold for a total of over $1 million at two sales held in 2007 and 2008 by Richard D. Hatch & Associates, Flat Rock, North Carolina. €30,000-€40,000 (£26,670-£35,560 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot55 86