Brothers of the Brush was the title given by Brendan Behan to the school of artists described in this personal memoir by Patrick J. Murphy. The author knew most of the artists and indeed their families so the story includes the wider aspects of their families and life inside and outside the art world. Pat has been collecting art with his wife, Antoinette, for almost all his life and his art collection included works by most of the artists about which he writes. This makes for a fascinating and personal analysis.

The middle- class artist Louis le Brocquy (1916–2012) and his more adventurous modern artist friends Evie Hone, (1894–1955), Mainie Jellett (1897–1944) and some others, had set up a rival annual exhibition to that of the RHA. It was known as the Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA). The Brothers of the Brush became yet another group, the Independent Artists. The story of how these different groupings came to understand each other is the topic of the book. Along the way we see how art education at the National College of Art developed after protests by the students studying there. Major artistic developments like the ‘ROSC exhibitions are examined from the perspective of the Brothers.

This book tells the story of the careers of young artists, who somehow survived despite a lack of patronage and respect for their ideas. In the end the ‘rebels’ became the establishment as often happens in the world of art with the passage of time.