Louis le Brocquy, R.H.A.

The Artist's Estate

Louis le Brocquy met novelist Samuel Beckett through Con Leventhal, Beckett’s professor at Trinity College in Dublin. They remained firm friends until Beckett’s death in 1989, and both enjoyed a fruitful, collaborative working relationship throughout this time. On le Brocquy’s regular visits to Paris, he was one of the select figures whom Beckett made time to see. In addition to producing illustrations and designs for numerous of Beckett’s works, such as Stirrings Still (John Calder, 1988), Le Brocquy produced a series of portraits of the writer between 1979 and 2005. This formed part of his renowned Portrait Head series, which depicted well-known cultural figures of the past (see lot 10).

As Beckett was a close friend, perhaps in the present lot there is even more of an attempt to reveal the sitter’s personality and relationship to the artist. The head is isolated in full colour and with rich detail, and he intensely stares back out at the viewer. Le Brocquy’s ability to depict Beckett’s features to such a likeness – his angular visage, high, furrowed brow and piercing eyes - is indicative of their longstanding relationship. Speaking in general of painting the playwright, Le Brocquy commented: ‘I’m not making a statement at all… I’m simply trying to discover, to uncover, aspects of the Beckettness of Beckett’.

LE BROCQUY, OCTOBER 1979, QUOTED IN LOUIS LE BROCQUY PORTRAIT HEADS, DUBLIN, NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND, 2006, P.63.