Le Brocquy's still-life paintings originate in the early 1940's with Still life with Book and Penny, 1941, and, later, in the 1950's with Still life with Apples (1951), Study for Flowers(1953), Still life with Grapes (1955). The paintings of single fruit notably on darkly stained grounds of the 1960's, including Lemon (1968, A.R.222), lead to a notable body of work in the 1970's, including Fruit Now and Then (1970; A.R. 353), Fruit in the Hand (1974; A.R. 355), Lemon, Newsprint (1974; A.R. 357). The early paintings of fantail pigeons Dove at Casa Rezillo, Fogio-Ischia (1956), and Male Dove (1956), are prompted by a memorable visit to Italy. Anne Madden recounts: 'The casa Pezzoli was a charming, whitewashed peasant house. In its courtyard a flock of white doves was fed by Louis. He was drawn to the intense life of these birds and made sketches from which a series of small oil paintings emerged. He was to return to this subject many years later in France, where our own fantail pigeons flew, turning and tumbling above their native valley, returning at nightfall to their home-made dovecote'. Inspired by the cornucopia of life at Les Combes the artist embarks on an ongoing series of life and still-life paintings. In 1981 the artist turns to nature. Dorothy Walker writes: 'Le Brocquy's peonies are the epitome of his intention to transmute the reality of an object into the reality of an image by the medium of oil paint. The medium is rich, palpable, almost luscious, recreating in terms of paint the reality of a peony, and indicating its floral identity by the merest deft reference. Similarly in his paintings of doves or fantailed white pigeons their fluttery featheriness is transmuted into fluttery white paint not by attempting any realistic reproduction of a dove but by means of an image having its own inherent reality. Even in his paintings of goldfish, le Brocquy has created a more intense reality than one could imagine emanating from that somewhat cool customer.' ...