The artist Louis le Brocquy has died aged 95. It's understood he has been ill for some time.
He is survived by his wife Anne Madden Le Brocquy and his two sons Pierre and Alexis.
President Michael D Higgins has expressed his sympathies. ''Louis le Brocquy's pioneering approach to art, influenced by the European masters, was highly inspirational.
President Michael D Higgins has expressed his sympathies
''His works including the Tinker Paintings broke new ground and opened dialogue around the human condition and suffering.
''Through painting, tapestry and print Louis le Brocquy has provided us with individual works and collections that give the insight and response of an artist of genius to Irish history, culture and society.
''Today I lament the loss of a great artist and wonderful human being whose works are amongst this country's most valuable cultural assets and are cherished by us all. Louis leaves to humanity a truly great legacy.''
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One he said that the Irish people were very grateful to him and praised his work in founding the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
His work has received much international attention and many accolades in a career that spanned 70 years.
Le Brocquy was born in Dublin in 1916 and left Ireland in 1938 to study the major European art collections in London, Paris, Venice and Geneva.
His return to Dublin signalled the advent of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, which established an effective forum for contemporary art in Dublin in 1943.
Emerging as an innovative and influential artist, in 1946 he moved to London and became prominent in the contemporary art scene.
He began to exhibit internationally, winning a major prize at the Venice Biennale in 1956 where he represented Ireland.
In 1958, he was included in the historic exhibition ''Fifty Years of Modern Art'' at Brussels World Fair.
The same year he married Irish painter Anne Madden and left London to work in the French Midi.
He was widely acclaimed for his evocative heads of literary figures and fellow artists, including W B Yeats, James Joyce and his friends Samuel Beckett, Francis Bacon, Seamus Heaney and Bono.
In recent years Mr Le Brocquy's early Tinker subjects and Family paintings attracted headline attention in the international art arena.
The artist's work is represented in numerous public collections, from the Guggenheim, New York to the Tate, London.
In Ireland, he was honoured as the first and only living painter to be included in the Permanent Irish Collection of the National Gallery.
Donal O'Donoghue recalls meeting the late artist in 2000 here.
