Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART Auction Wednesday 24th March 2021

www.adams.ie Important Irish Art | 24 th March 2021 107 94 LOUIS LE BROCQUY HRHA (1916-2012) A Man is Run Over in Merrion Row Watercolour and pencil, 36 x 44cm (14¼ x 17¼’’) Signed, inscribed and dated Nov. (19)’42 In 1938, at the age of twenty-two, Louis Le Brocquy, then a capable chemistry student at Trinity College Dublin, came to the realisation that a life dedicated to science was not the path he wanted to pursue. His mind made up, he removed his lab coat in favour of the painter’s smock. With no artistic training, Le Brocquy took his education into his own hands and set off on a European tour to examine the great art collections of Venice, Paris, London and Geneva. Fully inspired, he returned to Dublin in the 1940s and set up a studio at 13 Merrion Row. It was here that Le Brocquy began to find himself as a painter. With a strong interest in the human condition and a penchant for illustrating a story, it is no wonder that we are presented with A Man is Run Over in Merrion Row . This rushed and chaotic piece, picked out in pencil and highlighted by watercolour, beautifully captures the dra- ma and the sensationalism of the scene. We can imagine Le Brocquy as the silent onlooker, intent on recording the event as it unfolds on his doorstep. Despite being a member of the community, Le Brocquy does not retell the scene with the concern that would be expected but rather focuses on the morbid fascination that humans hold for tragedy. Jostling to get a better view of the struck man, onlookers leer over the victim as they would an exotic creature. The figure to the upper left gapes in horror in an almost pantomime-like fashion whilst the man carrying the stretcher, his arms elongated under the weight, proudly carries out his part in the play. Such studies of calamity clearly caught Le Brocquy’s attention as he revisits roadside misfortune a year later in his sketch A horse falls between the shafts, held down, unharnessed, head covered. Helena Carlyle, September 2019 € 4,000 - 6,000 CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOGRAPHS AND BIDDING