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Christopher Le Brun RA

Born: 20 December 1951, Portsmouth, UK
Elected RA: 12 December 1996
Category of Membership: Engraver

Christopher Le Brun studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London from 1970 to 1974 and at Chelsea School of Art, London from 1974 to 1975. From 1976 to 1983, Le Brun was a visiting lecturer at Brighton, Chelsea, Slade and Wimbledon Schools of Art.

Christopher Le Brun RA, Tower with Road and Figures
Christopher Le Brun RA, Tower with Road and Figures

Le Brun’s first solo show was held in 1980 at the Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London. He was subsequently included in many of the international surveys of art of the 1980s, in Italy, France, Germany, Japan, Scandanavia and the USA. In 1984 he produced the designs for a revival of Ballet Imperial at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, and in 1996 he received a major commission from the Jerusalem Trust for paintings for the choir of Liverpool Cathedral. He was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery in 1999 to paint George Steiner.

From 1987 to 1988 he lived in Berlin as a guest of the Berlin Artists’ Programme of the DAAD and was Visiting Artist at the Vermont Studio School (1993) and the New York School (1995). Le Brun was a Trustee of the Tate Gallery, London from 1990 to 1995, and was appointed a Trustee of the National Gallery in 1996, the same year in which he was elected a Royal Academician. He was The Royal Academy's first Professor of Drawing from 2000 to 2002. He is currently a Trustee of the Prince's Drawing School and a member of the Council of the Royal Academy. Le Brun lives and works in London.

Recent solo exhibitions
2008 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
2007 Galerie Fortlaan 17, Ghent, Belgium
New Art Gallery, Walsall
2005 Lichfield Cathedral. Invited artist, Lichfield Arts Festival
50 Etchings 2005, Paragon Press, Frieze Art Fair London
2004 Marlborough Chelsea, New York
2003 Galerie Fortlaan 17, Ghent
Galleria Sottoportego, Venice Marlborough Graphics, London
2002 Galleri Christian Dam, Copenhagen
2001 University Gallery, University of Northumbria, Newcastle
Pollock Gallery, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
Galerie J. Aasen, Alesund, Norway
Marlborough Fine Art, London
2000 Galleri Christian Dam, Oslo
Fig-1, London
1999 Marlborough Fine Art, London
Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA
1998 Marlborough Fine Art, London
1997 Courtauld Prints and Drawings Gallery, London
Galerie Fortlaan 17, Ghent, Belgium
1996 Marlborough Graphics, London
1995-96 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
1995 Astrup Fearnley Museum for Modern Art, Oslo
Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow
1994 Galerie Fortlaan 17, Ghent, Belgium
Marlborough Fine Art, London
1992 Art Center, Pasadena, California
LA Louver Gallery, Venice, California
1991 Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London
Galerie Fortlaan 17, Ghent, Belgium

Public collections
Aberdeen Art Gallery
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Arts Council of Great Britain
Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery
The British Council, London
British Museum, London
Chester Beatty Library, Dublin
Contemporary Art Society, London
Courtauld Gallery, London
Department of the Environment, London
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Hamilton Art Gallery, Ontario
Harris Museum, Preston
Ile de France Regional Fund
Liverpool Cathedral
Malmo Doershus, Malmö, Sweden
Maclaurin Art Gallery, Ayr
McNay Museum, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
National Portrait Gallery, London
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo
Power Gallery, University of Sydney, Australia
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Southampton Museum and Art Gallery
Spencer Collection, New York City Public Library
Stavanger, Art Gallery, Stavanger
Stirlingshire Educational Trust
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery
Tate Gallery, London
University of Liverpool
University of Texas, Austin, USA
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Frederick R Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, USA
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, USA

Publications
Christopher Le Brun, Booth-Clibborn Editions, 2001
Christopher Le Brun: Fifty Etchings, Stephen Bann, Paragon Press, 1991

Contact details for further information
Email membershipoffice@royalacademy.org.uk

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Show photo credits

Peter Freeth RA photographed in his studio by Eamonn McCabe

Trevor Dannatt RA at lunch in St James’s Restaurant. Photograph by Julian Anderson

Jennifer Durrant RA photographed in her studio by Eamonn McCabe