Anne Madden

Anne Madden (born 1932) is an English-born painter, who is well known in both Ireland and France where she has divided her time since her marriage to Louis le Brocquy in 1958. Early life Anne M. Madden was born in London in 1932 to an Irish father and an Anglo-Chilean mother. Madden spent her first years in Chile, where her Father owned a farm. Madden's family moved to Corrofin, Ireland when she was ten years old. She subsequently moved to London and attended the Chelsea School of Arts and Crafts. Her father died in a car crash when she was a teenager. She also lost her sister and brother-in-law in a plane crash, which left Madden as guardian to three young children. Her brother died at a young age of injuries sustained by falling down the stairs. Her work was then interrupted for three years in the 1950s by a series of operations on her spine following a riding accident. During that time she met the painter Louis le Brocquy who was then working in London. They married in Chartres Cathedral in 1958 and set up house and studio in Carros in the south of France, where they remained until 2000. 1950s Madden began exhibiting in group shows in London when she was eighteen. One of her earliest exhibitions was with the New English Art Club. The Burren and her love of lonely places informed these early paintings.