Venerated, but controversy was never far away

Louis le Brocquy, who died yesterday aged 95, was so venerated a figure in the Irish arts world that it is often forgotten how controversial a figure he had sometimes been.

As a young, self-taught artist in Dublin, he helped found the Irish Exhibition of Living Art of 1943, a contemporary showcase that blew the cobwebs off painting and sculpture as they were practiced in Ireland at that time. Later, his painting A Family became infamous when Dublin Municipal Gallery refused it as a gift.

A Family is one of 10 works viewers are being asked to vote for on RTÉ’s Masterpiece: Ireland’s Favourite Painting. Whatever one may think of the programme, le Brocquy’s A Family is widely and justly acknowledged as one of the great Irish artworks of the 20th century.