Lot 128 LOUIS LE BROCQUY HRHA (1916 - 2012)
Title: Garlanded Goat (1950)
Medium: Colour Inverted Aubusson Tapestry, Edition 1/9
Signature: Signed & dated 1950 in weave of tapestry & signed and numbered 1/9 on Rene Duche Label Verso
Provenance: Atelier Rene Duche, 1991 (Label Verso); Private Collection
Description
This rare tapestry, Garlanded Goat, is one of Louis le Brocquy’s most distinctive and historically significant textile works, woven in a colour-inverted edition of just nine. Designed in 1950 and executed at the renowned Tabard Frères et Soeurs atelier in Aubusson, the piece reimagines a motif from his earlier painting Goat in Snow (1949). Here, the animal stands in stylised profile, crowned with a floral garland, its head turned back toward the viewer with an almost mythic self-awareness.
In this inverted version, le Brocquy transforms the original warm palette into its chromatic opposite—a visual strategy he often employed to deepen psychological and symbolic resonance. The goat, a recurring figure in Irish folklore and seasonal rituals such as the Puck Fair, becomes an emblem of transformation and fertility. The flattened forms and fragmented contours draw on Cubist principles while preserving a rhythmic, almost Celtic decorative clarity. The artist's woven signature and date affirm both authorship and the tapestry's origin in the early phase of his exploration into textile as a modern expressive medium.
Le Brocquy’s approach to tapestry marked a pivotal moment in Irish modernism. At a time when few Irish artists engaged seriously with the medium, he brought a European avant-garde sensibility to bear on ancient craft traditions. Garlanded Goat stands as a synthesis of ritual, abstraction, and innovation—a vital link between Ireland’s visual heritage and the international modernist movement.
Biography
Louis le Brocquy is widely regarded as one of the most original and influential figures in 20th-century Irish art. Born in Dublin, he was largely self-taught, developing his early style through close study of European masters and exposure to modernist movements during his time abroad. In the 1940s, he co-founded the Irish Exhibition of Living Art and rapidly gained recognition for his bold, introspective works that sought to place Irish painting in dialogue with the wider European avant-garde.
Le Brocquy's career evolved through distinct phases—from early social realism to the luminous fragmentation of his Traveller and Tinker series, and later to his celebrated Head series, in which he portrayed cultural giants like Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett in haunting, translucent forms. His achievements were recognised internationally, culminating in his representation of Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 1956 and, later, the acquisition of A Family by the National Gallery of Ireland—the first time a living Irish artist's work entered the permanent collection.
Parallel to his painting practice, le Brocquy pursued tapestry as a serious art form. Collaborating with master weavers in Aubusson, he created designs that married modernist abstraction with symbolic imagery drawn from Irish myth and ritual. Garlanded Goat was among his earliest and most successful of these ventures—praised by critics and collectors alike for its inventive use of form and colour.
Le Brocquy's work is held in major institutions worldwide, including the Tate, the Guggenheim, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. He remains one of the few Irish artists to achieve sustained international acclaim while shaping a distinctly national visual language. His legacy endures not only in his paintings but also in the pioneering role he played in elevating Irish modernism onto the world stage.
€80000 - 120000
58 x 128 cm. (approx.)
Wednesday 14th May 2025
19:45:50
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