CHERUB, 1952 Louis le Brocquy HRHA (1916-2012)
Signature: signed and numbered on weaver's label on reverse; also with weaver's monogram upper left Medium: Aubusson tapestry, Atelier Tabard Frères et Souers, France; (no. 8 from an edition of 10) Dimensions: 43½ x 52in. (110.49 x 132.08cm) Provenance: Taylor Galleries, Dublin; Where purchased by the mother of the present owner; Thence by descent Exhibited: Literature: Dorothy Walker Louis le Brocquy Dublin, 1981, p.29; Taylor Galleries, Dublin, Louis le Brocquy Tapestries, exh. cat., 2000, illustrated (another version); The Hunt Museum, Limerick Louis le Brocquy exh. cat., 2006, illustrated. p.75 (another version) In 1948, Edinburgh Tapestry Weavers, an ancient industry under the patronage of the then Marquis of Bute, invited a number of painters, working in London, to design tapestries. The artists included St... tanley Spencer, Jankel Adler Graham Sutherland and Louis le Brocquy who later continued his work in this medium in collaboration with the Tabard workshop at Aubusson in France. In 1951, Mrs. S.H. Stead-Ellis, whose art collection already included le Brocquy tapestries, commissioned three related tapestries, adaptable as screen, rug and fire screen, on the theme of the Garden of Eden - Adam and Eve in the Garden, Eden and Cherub. He treated the theme with archetypal imagery in a classical, even traditional manner, the sun and the moon appearing respectively in the male and female spheres. The angel of the Cherubim in the smallest work is an ambiguous figure suggesting apocalyptic disaster rather than heavenly glory, carrying in its palms a prophetic stigmata. But the beautiful rose-pink colour of the angelic figure does suggest some heavenly background. The artist, in an interview with Harriet Cooke published in The Irish Times in May 1973, describes his involvement with tapestry as something he had "rather stumbled into by accident". But after that first commission from Edinburgh Weavers, the medium took on its own distinct fascination: "I always found it a kind of recreation, involving completely different problems, it is refreshing in the sense that one is exhausted in a different way. There is also another aspect of it which is very exciting to the painter, who has this struggle with the angle, and that is the same aspect which is so exciting, say, to the Japanese Satsuma potter, when he puts his jar in the oven and waits on tenterhooks for it to come out. It always comes out a little different from what he had imagined and sometimes he has wonderful surprises. The method I use is a system of notation, a linear design which is numbered in the colours of a range of wools. Although one can visualise what one is doing, to a certain extent, when the tapestry is palpably there this causes an independent birth of something, and that is so contrary to the whole involved process of painting that it is rather refreshing." Extracts from www.anne-madden-com ABSTRAC more
CHERUB, 1952 Louis le Brocquy HRHA (1916-2012)
Signature: signed and numbered on weaver's label on reverse; also with weaver's monogram upper left Medium: Aubusson tapestry, Atelier Tabard Frères et Souers, France; (no. 8 from an edition of 10) Dimensions: 43½ x 52in. (110.49 x 132.08cm) Provenance: Taylor Galleries, Dublin; Where purchased by the mother of the present owner; Thence by descent Exhibited: Literature: Dorothy Walker Louis le Brocquy Dublin, 1981, p.29; Taylor Galleries, Dublin, Louis le Brocquy Tapestries, exh. cat., 2000, illustrated (another version); The Hunt Museum, Limerick Louis le Brocquy exh. cat., 2006, illustrated. p.75 (another version) In 1948, Edinburgh Tapestry Weavers, an ancient industry under the patronage of the then Marquis of Bute, invited a number of painters, working in London, to design tapestries. The artists included St... tanley Spencer, Jankel Adler Graham Sutherland and Louis le Brocquy who later continued his work in this medium in collaboration with the Tabard workshop at Aubusson in France. In 1951, Mrs. S.H. Stead-Ellis, whose art collection already included le Brocquy tapestries, commissioned three related tapestries, adaptable as screen, rug and fire screen, on the theme of the Garden of Eden - Adam and Eve in the Garden, Eden and Cherub. He treated the theme with archetypal imagery in a classical, even traditional manner, the sun and the moon appearing respectively in the male and female spheres. The angel of the Cherubim in the smallest work is an ambiguous figure suggesting apocalyptic disaster rather than heavenly glory, carrying in its palms a prophetic stigmata. But the beautiful rose-pink colour of the angelic figure does suggest some heavenly background. The artist, in an interview with Harriet Cooke published in The Irish Times in May 1973, describes his involvement with tapestry as something he had "rather stumbled into by accident". But after that first commission from Edinburgh Weavers, the medium took on its own distinct fascination: "I always found it a kind of recreation, involving completely different problems, it is refreshing in the sense that one is exhausted in a different way. There is also another aspect of it which is very exciting to the painter, who has this struggle with the angle, and that is the same aspect which is so exciting, say, to the Japanese Satsuma potter, when he puts his jar in the oven and waits on tenterhooks for it to come out. It always comes out a little different from what he had imagined and sometimes he has wonderful surprises. The method I use is a system of notation, a linear design which is numbered in the colours of a range of wools. Although one can visualise what one is doing, to a certain extent, when the tapestry is palpably there this causes an independent birth of something, and that is so contrary to the whole involved process of painting that it is rather refreshing." Extracts from www.anne-madden-com ABSTRAC more
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