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Deborah Brown was born in Belfast in 1927, but spent much of her childhood in Cushendun, on the North Coast of Co. Antrim, where she met James Humbert Craig and received informal painting lessons from him. After studying at Belfast College of Art and the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, she moved to Paris in 1950, where her experiences of modern French painting, in addition to stained glass at Notre Dame and Chartres cathedrals and tapestries at the Musée de Cluny, transformed her work.
Throughout the next 70 years of her career, Deborah Brown would go on to become one of the most prolific Irish artists, her works held in notable public collections, including the Hugh Lane Gallery, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, National Museums Northern Ireland, and the Arts Council of Ireland. Deborah Brown had moved to Ramelton, in County Donegal, in the early 2000s, and she died there in April 2023.
The Calm Revolution of Deborah Brown
In 2021, at the suggestion of her long standing friend and highly regarded fellow-artist Philip Flanagan, Dickon Hall and Jane Beattie were commissioned by Deborah Brown to create a catalogue of the art at her home in the small Donegal town of Ramelton, where she had lived for around two decades. Much of this was a fascinating collection of works by her artist friends and contemporaries, and those who had particularly influenced the trajectory of her career, in some aspect or another. The range included handsome landscapes by her first art teacher and family friend, James Humbert Craig; stylish modernist compositions by Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone; and pictures by contemporaries of whom Deborah was particularly fond, such as Alice Berger Hammerschlag, Terry Flanagan, William Scott, and Basil Blackshaw.
Throughout the cataloguing process, Hall and Beattie had the pleasure of witnessing the evolution of Deborah’s style. From her teenage years to the fateful stay in Paris, clear and distinct influences can be seen from the artists in her collection.
The Calm Evolution of Deborah Brown
Before 1950, when she lived in Paris, Deborah Brown painted predominantly landscapes and still life subjects on a small scale. James Humbert Craig, a friend and early teacher, is the most obvious influence on this work, although some group scenes also suggest an awareness of the Euston Road School.
On her return from Paris, Deborah Brown began to paint rhythmic, stylised, and highly coloured works drawn from Irish legends(particularly from the north Antrim coast where she had been brought up), and some Biblical subjects. Although only in her mid-twenties, she held regular solo exhibitions, including with the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery (now the Ulster Museum), the British Council, and the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts. At this time in Deborah’s career, the influence of Evie Hone can be seen clearly reflected in her experimentation with colour and shape.
Evie Hone RHA (1894 – 1955) was an Irish painter and stained-glass artist. Hone is considered an early pioneer of cubism. Although most famous for her stained glass, Hone’s style of painting is widely recognised for her use of vivid and contrasting colours as well as the balance of angular and round shapes in her works.
During this period Deborah also looked to Mainie Jellett for inspiration. Mainie Jellett (1897 – 1944) akin to Hone, was one of the first abstract painters in Ireland. Similarly to Deborah Brown, in 1921 Jellett also spent a period of time in Paris, which would be a turning point in her career as she would encounter Cubism for the first time. Jellett would go on to be an advocate for Cubism, as her first exhibition of cubist paintings in 1923 would be met with harsh criticism.
Jellett’s influence on Deborah Brown can be seen clearly in her choices of religious subject matters. Jellett being a deeply committed Christian, some of her works bear religious titles and, in some respects, resemble icons.
Throughout the 1950s, Deborah Brown’s work became increasingly abstracted, partly due to the experience of painting stage sets and designs for Mary O’Malley at the Lyric Theatre, until in 1958 she began to make her first gestural non-representational paintings. Although keenly engaged with American and European contemporaries, such as Pollock, Rothko, and de Stael, she quickly began to explore three-dimensionality, breaking through the canvas surface and adding everyday materials in a manner that foreshadowed the emergence of the Arte Povera movement later in the decade. From the mid-1960s, Brown used fibreglass in a sculptural manner on canvas or board and eventually began to make independent three-dimensional fibreglass works.
Deborah Brown’s deep humanity and empathy began to dominate her work in the 1970s, as she made environmental works and bronzes that explored themes of alienation and human interaction with wit and insight. Her sculpture increasingly reflected her enduring love of animals and their presence in her childhood in Cushendun. Brown’s monumental Sheep on the Road, located outside the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, remains one of the best-known public sculptures in the city; Hilary Pyle described how this‘ transitory moment on the road conveys in essence, something of the everlasting’
The following maquette was used in the creation of the life-sized bronze sculpture now situated outside the Waterfront Hall in Belfast. The bronze sculpture was commissioned by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in 1991. Later in 1999, the sculpture was purchased by Laganside Corporation and placed in-front of Waterfront Hall. The Sheep on the Road remains one of Deborah Brown’s most famous works.
Buying at Auction and the Role of Antiques in a Modern Home
Important Irish Art Auction Highlights
Oliver Dowling Collection by Aidan Dunne
2024 is a year in which Adam’s wants to recognise the key role buying antique furniture and furnishings at auction contributes greatly to the sustainable initiative. In 2019 the Environmental Protection Agency reported stark figures that each year in Ireland 1.2 million reusable bulky items, primarily furniture goes into landfill. Similar to the problem of ‘fast fashion’, the constant production and consumption of new items is leading to rapidly growing waste problem. We want to acknowledge those who are already buying second hand or antique furniture at auction and to encourage new buyers by highlighting the benefits of acquiring affordable, well-made quality items that are built to last.
Irish author, recipe creator and lifestyle influencer, Indy Parsons, selects her favourite pieces from our upcoming Fine Jewellery & Watches auction
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Cork-born Irish actress, Sarah Greene, selects her favourite pieces from our upcoming Fine Jewellery & Watches auction
Yvonne Aupicq had met Orpen, we understand, while working as a nurse during the war. He had been admitted to hospital with a suspected case of scabies which ended up being a far more serious case of blood poisoning as he recounts in his wartime memoir ‘An Onlooker in France’. Their relationship continued after 1918 when Orpen was appointed as the official artist to The Paris Peace Conference. They relocated to capital and over the following decade he painted her numerous times, often nude as in Amiens 1914, or The Rape and Nude Girl Reading (1921). Working with her as his model during these early years after the war allowed Orpen an opportunity to re-fuel his creativity.
Editor-in-Chief of IMAGE Publications, Lizzie Gore-Grimes, selects her favourite pieces from our upcoming Fine Jewellery & Watches auction
Our upcoming Fine Jewellery & Watches auction on September 13th features a prime example of Van Cleef & Arpel's renowned 'Mystery Setting'
Our June auction offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire one of the great masterpieces of Irish art and icons of Dublin’s history.
Georgia Chiesa selects some of her favourite lots in the upcoming Vintage Wine & Spirits Auction
"Beating the bounds is a tradition that can be traced back to the medieval period. At this time, land was divided into parishes and the clergy and church wardens held the responsibility for its upkeep and management. It was up to the Church to ensure that its parishioners knew the local boundary lines and, before maps became commonplace, this had to be kept as a mental record."
Adam’s in conjunction with Suzanne MacDougald are proud to host an online timed auction of artworks to aid the Irish Red Cross’s humanitarian work in delivering vital services to millions of people impacted by the conflict in Ukraine. With no buyers premium 100% of the hammer price will go directly to the Irish Red Cross.
Ros Drinkwater writes of Jack B Yeats' 'The Boat' in the Business Post:
With a consolidated result of €320,000,the At Home sale in Stephan’s Green, was a great success.
James Adam & Sons Ltd, Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers, 26 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2,
D02 X665, Ireland
