WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 29 MAY 2023 AT 6PM

66 40 Louis le Brocquy HRHA (1916-2012) MAN, 1956 oil on canvas signed lower left; signed, titled and with Gimpel Fils Gallery label on reverse 14 by 10in. (35.6 by 25.4cm) Frame Size: 20 by 16in. (50.8 by 40.6cm) The painting by Louis le Brocquy, entitled Man, has been dated to 1956, suggesting it was carried out early in his Presences period of c. 1956-66. The series arose following a revelatory experience during a visit to Spain in 1955, when it is recorded that the artist was spellbound on seeing figures in white against a white wall, in bright sunlight. The Presences series explores the human condition through the nature of the organic body, and Man evokes Le Brocquy’s observation: ’Here the intensity of the sunlight had interposed its own revelation, absorbing these human figures into its brilliance, giving substance only to shadow. From that moment I never perceived the human presence in quite the same way.’ 1 In the painting, a human body emerges from the white ground; the torso and spinal column are formed from greys accented with black, with red and pink to suggest both the dynamic of life and the fragility of the body. The artist has applied, over the torso, a fine, frayed layer of fabric, almost like a bandage, at the edge of which strands of the loose weave unravel and meld with impasto to suggest sinew and bone. The incomplete figure suggests transition, though the artist is equivocal as to whether it is emerging or submerging. As he continued: ’I had witnessed light as a kind of matrix from which the human being emerges and into which it ambivalently recedes, with which it even identifies.’ 2 In the following year, Louis le Brocquy explored variations on the theme, including Isolated Being andWoman, evidence of his increasing psychological exploration of the human condition. While the form in the painting represents the torso and a yawning abdominal cavity, it anticipates a phase to come in suggesting also a head with a mouth open as though emitting a primal sound. Such ambiguity is arguably deliberate, reflecting the artist’s awareness of the relationship between the body and the mind. A few years later, in the early 1960s, the artist went through something of a dilemma, unsure how to develop his work. He is known to have destroyed many canvases before the revelation leading to the celebrated Head series of images exploring ancestry and creativity. The painting Man is evocative however in demonstrating how the focus of Louis le Brocquy’s work in the 1950s could evolve into that of the following decades. While the Head series is often described as a new beginning, it is evident also that there was a common thread running through his work as it unfolded. Dr Yvonne Scott, May 2023 1 Recounted at: Louis le Brocquy Official Site - Anne Madden, White Period’ Presences (c.1956-66). https://www.anne-madden.com/LeBPages/humanpresence.html (accessed April 2023). 2 Ibid. €15,000-€20,000 (£13,160-£17,540 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot40