A drawing of Christy Brown, presumed to be a self-portrait, at Bonhams.
A Christy Brown archive will be sold at Bonhams in London on March 19. It comprises previously unseen sketches, paintings and unpublished poems as well as a large cache of correspondence and writings with 43 letters dating from 1945-76. The archive of the renowned painter and author whose life inspired the Oscar winning film of My Left Foot is estimated at £30,000-40,000.
Christy Brown always recognised that his struggle to overcome the effects of cerebral palsy was an inescapable part of his drive for self expression through writing and art. When asked by an interviewer what he might have achieved without his disability, Brown replied that he would have become a bricklayer like his father.
The archive also includes letters from Christy to his family and to Christy from his American friend and lover, Beth Moore and from Dr Robert Collis who first arranged treatment of his cerebral palsy.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 1, 2013).