He was an English painter of Irish origin, considered one of the leading figures of the New Figuration in the second half of the 20th century.

His artwork is characterized by emotional intensity and stylistic independence, making him an unmistakable reference in European art.

After a solitary childhood marked by illness, he moved to London in 1925, where he began to take an interest in painting. Influenced by his travels to Berlin and Paris and by artists such as Picasso, he developed his own pictorial language, especially recognized after the postwar period, which explores the human condition with power and rawness.