Louis le Brocquy, R.H.A.

Private Collection, Ireland, from whom acquired by the present owner

The present work relates strongly in both composition and handling to Woman in Sunlight (1955-56), painted after le Brocquy's extensive trip to Spain in the summer of 1955 where he noticed that, 'all dull colour here is lost, irradiated into brilliance by a white sun...' (le Brocquy, quoted by A. Smith, Louis le Brocquy, Paintings 1936 - 1996, exh. cat., Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 1996, p. 13). His subsequent realisation of the power of shadow in contrast to both light and the object itself resulted in the development of his shadowy series of Presences and White Paintings which are some of the artist's most defining works.