Fairground Under Bray Head (1949)
Louis le Brocquy, HRHA (b. 1916)
Louis le Brocquy (born November 10, 1916) is recognised both in Ireland and around the world as the foremost living figure in the history of Irish art of the 20th century. Born in Dublin, on Nov 10, 1916, his work has received widespread international praise during a career spanning seventy years of creative work. Awarded the Premio Acquisito Internationale with his painting A Family, which was later included in the historic exhibition Fifty Years of Modern Art at Brussels, World Fair 1958, le Brocquy is widely acclaimed for his series of Heads portraits of literary figures and fellow artists, which include William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, and his friends Samuel Beckett, Francis Bacon and Seamus Heaney. In addition, his earlier Tinker subjects and Grey period pictures have attracted enormous attention in the international and Irish art market, propelling him into the top group of four modern painters of Ireland and Britain along with Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and David Hockney. At home, Le Brocquy is the only living painter to be included in the Permanent Irish Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland.
