Melanie Le Brocquy
{{Short description|Irish sculptor (1919–2018)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
Melanie le Brocquy (23 December 1919{{spaced en dash}}22 June 2018) was an Irish sculptor who specialized in female figures and family members. Forms are reduced to a simple statement.{{Cite web|url=https://www.adams.ie/irish-artist-directory/melanie-le-brocquy-art-sold-at-auction|title=Melanie le Brocquy 1919 - , Irish Artist.|website=adams.ie|language=en-gb|access-date=2019-03-05}} Although she did not create very many works, her skills are widely respected. Among her most successful pieces are busts of her brother Louis (1916–2012), a painter, and of her mother.{{cite web|url=http://aosdana.artscouncil.ie/Members/Visual-Arts/le-Brocquy-(1).aspx|title=Melanie le Brocquy|publisher=Aosdána|accessdate=30 November 2017 }}{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/the-other-le-brocquy-1.203821|title=The other le Brocquy|author=Dunne, Aidan|newspaper=The Irish Times|accessdate=30 November 2017 }}{{cite news |title=Modernist artist who captured the lives of ordinary people in ordinary situations |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/modernist-artist-who-captured-the-lives-of-ordinary-people-in-ordinary-situations-1.3578399 |newspaper=The Irish Times |accessdate=14 September 2018}}
Biography
Born in Dublin in 1919, Melanie le Brocquy attended the National College of Art & Design before continuing her studies at Geneva's École des Beaux-Arts. She then returned to Ireland in order to study at Dublin's Royal Hibernian Academy. It was here in 1995 that she received a prize for the best bronze casting.
Among her most notable works are a bronze of St Patrick (1941) which in 2001 was installed in St Patrick's Cathedral. Her four busts of Oscar Wilde can be seen in Trinity College Dublin, the American College Dublin, Magdalen College, Oxford, and the Irish Embassy in Washington.
Le Brocquy exhibited at the Salzburg Biennale in 1962 and held solo exhibitions in Dublin, London and Belfast. Among her awards are the California Gold Medal (1939) and the Claremorris Open Exhibition prize (1991).
References
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Category:20th-century Irish women artists
Category:21st-century Irish women artists
Category:Artists from Dublin (city)