This major monograph on the life and work of a notable Irish landscape-painter, features work from the 1950s to 2010. Rouault, Cézanne and Bonnard immediately spring to mind when assessing the work of Desmond Carrick, such is his understanding and appreciation of French art of the early to mid-20th century.

Although he did not have the opportunity to work in France until the 1970s, Carrick was already well acquainted with the work of its greatest painters, with whom he shares a love of colour, pattern and the decorative possibilities of paint. The ability to capture light and atmosphere through plein-air painting and direct communication with the subject has been an enduring feature of his work.

Carrick found that the refinements and subtleties of these painters echoed his own concerns and sustained him as he forged his vision on the way to becoming one of the finest Irish painters of his generation. He has that rare ability in the medium to capture the essence of the subject in a spare and individual manner from the earliest works made in the 1950s. He has managed to sustain this pace and sensibility over a fifty-year span. "synopsis" may belong to