WHYTE'S IMPORTANT IRISH ART 28 November 2022 at 6pm

86 52 Louis le Brocquy HRHA (1916-2012) IMAGE OF W. B. YEATS, 1989 oil on canvas signed, dated [1988/89] and numbered [555] on reverse 48 by 36in. (121.9 by 91.4cm) Frame Size: 56 by 44.5in. (142.2 by 113cm) Provenance: Taylor Galleries, Dublin; Private collection; Sotheby’s, 21 May 1999, lot 347; Private collection Exhibired: ‘Louis le Brocquy, Images Single and Multiple, 1957-1990’, Kamakura Museum of Modern Art and toured to Itami City Museum of Art and Hiroshima, City Museum of Contemporary Art, 1991, catalogue no. 22 Louis le Brocquy is recognised as one of the most significant Irish artists of the twentieth century. During his long life as an artist, le Brocquy’s output consisted of a series of distinct phases, each of which comprises a number of works that explore a theme from different perspectives. While the phases vary, a defining feature is the exploration of the nature of humanity, not least the condition of isolation - social, physical, or psychological. A major phase was the ‘Head’ series, begun in the 1960s following a visit to the anthropological museum, Musée de l’Homme, in Paris. Initially, the artist explored the idea of ancestry and heritage in a generic series of anonymous heads that conveyed a link between the past and the present. The theme evolved to address specific portrait images of identifiable creative individuals known to the artist - either as friends or acquaintances he had met, or familiar to him posthumously through their work. While addressing different individuals, the method was generally consistent, involving a disembodied head emerging from a plain background, modelled to suggest creativity at work. While eyes are indicated, they rarely connect with the viewer, instead they are deeply engaged in contemplation to imply psychological depth. As le Brocquy observed: “Like the Celts, I tend to regard the head as this magic box containing the spirit. Enter that box, enter behind the billowing curtain of the face, and you have a whole landscape of the spirit.” (1) The portrait series includes several of the celebrated Irish poet, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) whom le Brocquy had met as a child. Image of W.B. Yeats was carried out around fifty years after the death of the poet whose work continues to resonate. In discussing the portrait series, le Brocquy has commented that he saw the subjects less as famous or brilliant, but rather “as vulnerable, especially poignant beings who have gone further than the rest of us and for that reason are more isolated and moving”. (2) Several photographs of Yeats during his lifetime suggest ephemerality of expression. Image of W.B. Yeats, presents a frontal image that suggests something of the nuance of the character. The eyes are indicated but obscured, thereby denying any opportunity to interpret whatever they may convey, and adding to the internal nature of the observation. This painting, and the several that address the poet, collectively reflect the artist’s contention that such individuals cannot be encapsulated in a single image; that the external appearance of such complex multidimensional characters can only serve as an indication of the inner depths that le Brocquy sought to express in his work. Yet the image can stand alone in its capacity to embody that very complexity. Dr Yvonne Scott, November 2022 1. Michael Peppiatt, ‘Interview with Louis le Brocquy’, Art International, vol.XXIII/7 (1979), p.66. 2. Ibid. €120,000-€180,000 (£103,450-£155,170 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot52