Louis Le Brocquy Auction Prices and Value Guide

Louis Le Brocquy auction prices are tracked in Appraisily's artist market index, with source-directory coverage of 1,603 records. Use this page to review sold-lot activity, market context, and valuation factors before requesting a formal appraisal.

Louis Le Brocquy auction prices: quick answer

Louis Le Brocquy auction prices depend on medium, size, date, condition, provenance, edition details, attribution confidence, and recent comparable auction sales.

Artist
Louis Le Brocquy
Source records
1,603
Market update
2026-02-06

Artist context

About Louis Le Brocquy

Louis Le Brocquy (1916–2012) was an Irish painter born in Dublin whose career spanned nearly seven decades. Recognized as one of the most significant Irish artists of the twentieth century, he represented Ireland at the 1956 Venice Biennale, where his painting A Family was awarded the Premio Acquisito Internationale. That work was later included in the landmark exhibition Fifty Years of Modern Art at the 1958 Brussels World Fair. Le Brocquy studied in London and, after marrying the Irish painter Anne Madden in 1958, established a studio in the French Midi where he worked extensively. His practice encompassed oil painting and decorative art, and he is recorded as both a painter and decorative artist by major library authority files. His sister Melanie Le Brocquy was a noted sculptor. Le Brocquy held the honorary title HRHA and is documented in the Tate collection, the RKD, VIAF, and the Library of Congress authority file.

Modern Irish paintingoil paintingdecorative arthuman figures and family

Common works and media

Collectors and appraisers most frequently encounter Le Brocquy's oil paintings, particularly figural compositions and his later head portrait series. Works on paper, limited-edition prints, tapestry designs, and decorative art commissions also appear in auction and appraisal contexts. His painting A Family (1956) is among his most recognized works. The breadth of his output over a seven-decade career means that subject matter, palette, and style can vary significantly across periods.

Market and appraisal context

Louis Le Brocquy's secondary market is deep and geographically diverse, with 167 recorded lots spanning 2001 to early 2026 and 109 lots carrying realized prices. Major houses — Sotheby's, Christie's, and Bonhams — appear alongside leading Irish specialists Adam's, Gormleys, deVeres, and Sheppards, and continental firms such as Artcurial, Piasa, Koller, and Stockholms Auktionsverket. Price dispersion is wide: the interquartile range runs roughly €1,150 to €24,000 (median ≈ €9,000), while the top recorded price reaches €361,250. Recent lots confirm active demand across oil paintings, head-series works on paper, color lithographs, and tapestry designs. Liquidity is moderate: 4 lots in the most recent 12 months and 6 in the prior 12 months, consistent with a well-established but not high-volume Post-War Irish artist. The strongest prices cluster around canonical oil paintings and head-series works, especially those depicting literary or cultural figures (Samuel Beckett, Francis Bacon, Shakespeare), while lithograph editions and smaller works on paper trade at lower tiers.

Auction categories and appraisal factors

Common auction categories

  • oil painting
  • works on paper
  • prints and lithographs
  • decorative art

Value drivers

  1. Period and series — early figural work, later head series, and tapestry designs may carry distinct market segments
  2. Provenance — exhibition history including Venice Biennale 1956 and Brussels World Fair 1958 may increase collector interest
  3. Medium — oil paintings generally command higher prices than works on paper, prints, or decorative pieces
  4. Attribution — works should be verified against catalogued paintings; decorative art commissions and collaborative pieces require careful authentication
  5. Medium — oil paintings command the highest tier; works on paper (watercolors, pencil studies) trade in a middle range; color lithographs and editioned prints at the lower tier.
  6. Series and subject — head-series portraits of cultural figures (Beckett, Bacon, Shakespeare) carry premium interest; figural compositions and early works are separately valued.

Appraisal caveats

  • With over 1,600 recorded lots, Le Brocquy's market is broad; values vary widely by period, medium, and provenance.
  • No specific auction records or price ranges were available in the collected source pack; market observations above are based on biographical and institutional context only.
  • Price data spans multiple currencies (EUR, GBP, USD, CHF); the interquartile range and median cited above are in mixed currencies and should be interpreted as approximate bands rather than precise thresholds.
  • Of 167 recorded lots, 109 have realized prices; 58 lots lack price data (unsold, withdrawn, or post-sale results not captured), so the price distribution may be skewed toward successfully sold works.

Evidence

Sources for artist context

This source-grounded artist context passed Appraisily's promotion threshold: high confidence, strong sources.

Source-grounded artist Markdown

Data basis

This page is built from Appraisily's public auction market index. Private transactions, incomplete sale feeds, and attribution changes may not be fully represented.

LLM-readable Markdown summary for Louis Le Brocquy

LLM summary index · LLM full index

Artist value FAQ

How much is Louis Le Brocquy worth?

Comparable public auction sales are the best starting point, but final value depends on the specific artwork, condition, size, medium, provenance, and attribution confidence.

Can Appraisily value my Louis Le Brocquy artwork?

Yes. Appraisily can review photos, dimensions, signatures, condition, provenance, and comparable market data to prepare a current valuation.