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Child in a Spring Field signed and dated 'LE BROCQUY/54' (lower left) and inscribed 'CHILD IN A SPRING FIELD' (on the stretcher) oil on canvas 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm.) PROVENANCE Purchased by the present owner at the 1955 exhibition. EXHIBITION London, Gimpel Fils, Recent Paintings and Tapestries by Louis le Brocquy, February 1955, no. 3. Venice, XXVIII Biennale, June-October 1956, no. 13, representing Ireland. NOTES In 1951 le Brocquy's palette changed from the colourful work of the 1940s paintings of Irish travellers, to predominately grey, black and white - a change that would later become known as his 'Grey Period'. His work was dominated during this period by the human presence, but the images were starker than in the earlier works. In 1981, John Russell (D. Walker, Louis le Brocquy, Dublin, 1981, p. 9) commented, 'When le Brocquy first came to be known as a painter, some thirty years ago, it was not as the civilised head-hunter he has lately become. It was as a story-teller, a symbolist and thoughtful enquirer into the conditions of life. In the early 1950s, above all, he came before us as a man who was looking for the image that would compound all other images. Anyone who was around at that time and concerned with what was called 'post-war British art' will remember a painting called A Family, which he painted in 1951'. A Family (N‚stl‚ Italiana SPA, Milan) was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1956 where le Brocquy represented Ireland, alongside the sculptor, Hilary Heron. The work won a major international prize and was bought by the N‚stl‚ corporation. The present work, Child in a Spring Field, was also exhibited at the 1956 Biennale, together with a series of pictures of children, such as Child in a Dark Room (1953; private collection), and Child in a Yard (1954; Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin). The paintings of children were produced in the artist's studio in Battersea, London, and where he worked from 1952-57, and were inspired by childhood visits to his maternal grandfather's house at Castlerea, Co. Roscommon. In 1994 (in an interview with George Morgan, Procession, Kinsale, p. 10) the artist commented on the presence of children in his work, 'what fascinates me about the child, though, is a certain primitive quality. I have often wondered if one could see human beings more clearly stripped back to Palaeolithic circumstance. Since that is not possible, then perhaps children may provide us with some insight into our original depths' (see A. Smith, Louis le Brocquy Paintings 1939-1996, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, exhibition catalogue, 1996, pp. 33, 80-81). SALESROOM NOTICE The Family which is referred to in the catalogue note for this lot, has now been donated to the National Gallery of Ireland by a private collector.