Lot Essay
Michael Warren, the sculptor, writes of this work 'The 'stitching and unstitching' of which W.B. Yeats speaks assuredly encompasses those brave moments in an artist's life when creative integrity necessitates dramatic return to core values. Such moments are evident throughout 20th century art but occur with particular frequency and urgency during the decade following World War II.
The relatively small canvas, 'Man Writing', painted in 1951 by Louis le Brocquy is a major landmark in the development of the then 35 years old artist. A moral manifesto of sorts, subject matter identifies only the essential: beyond an 'open' interior, night has fallen over a hazy moonlit landscape, a seated woman watches over her child, while in the interior, a man writes. To write is as natural a thing as the house dog whose presence and position gives structure and movement to this scene of measured calm. The walls are devoid of ornament, no clothes are worn by either man or woman; there are neither doors, furniture nor windows in this architecture of the mind, yet, very strangely, the atmosphere is one of fullness and completeness.
Ultimately however the simple magic of 'Man Writing' rests on its striking evocative power. It is this ability to evoke palpable presence which is the key to the art of Louis le Brocquy and to which it owes its deserved place in the context of contemporary European art'.
(Private Correspondence, 24 February 1997).
The relatively small canvas, 'Man Writing', painted in 1951 by Louis le Brocquy is a major landmark in the development of the then 35 years old artist. A moral manifesto of sorts, subject matter identifies only the essential: beyond an 'open' interior, night has fallen over a hazy moonlit landscape, a seated woman watches over her child, while in the interior, a man writes. To write is as natural a thing as the house dog whose presence and position gives structure and movement to this scene of measured calm. The walls are devoid of ornament, no clothes are worn by either man or woman; there are neither doors, furniture nor windows in this architecture of the mind, yet, very strangely, the atmosphere is one of fullness and completeness.
Ultimately however the simple magic of 'Man Writing' rests on its striking evocative power. It is this ability to evoke palpable presence which is the key to the art of Louis le Brocquy and to which it owes its deserved place in the context of contemporary European art'.
(Private Correspondence, 24 February 1997).