Lucian FREUD (1922-2011)
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Early Freud UK II Groups British Royals
Chronology : 1980-1989 1983 1987 1990-1999 1992 1994 1995 1997 2000-2009 2002 2003
See also : Early Freud UK II Groups British Royals
Chronology : 1980-1989 1983 1987 1990-1999 1992 1994 1995 1997 2000-2009 2002 2003
1961 Pregnant Girl
2016 SOLD for £ 16M by Sotheby's
Lucian Freud is a creator. In his time when birth control is uncertain and controversial, he gives life. He expresses through his art the feelings brought to him by these events.
Life in Soho is conducive to these stories of another time. In 1959, Bernadine is 16 and wishing to escape a too rigorous education. Lucian is twenty years older. On the following year, she is pregnant with their first daughter, Bella. Francis and Bernadine are deeply and sincerely in love, but not enough to live together. Their relationship, however, is sustainable: a second birth will follow and their friendship will last until the end of their lives, a few days apart in 2011.
The art of his friend Francis Bacon is resolutely modern. Expression has replaced realism. Lucian wants to follow this path and observes Bernadine with a renewed attention. The theme of the sleeping woman, previously experienced by Picasso with Marie-Thérèse, is conducive to confidence and privacy. Lucian is perhaps not yet the incorrigible talkative of his later career: he lets Bernadine asleep.
On February 10, 2016, Sotheby's sold for £ 16M from a lower estimate of £ 7M Pregnant girl, lot 17. This oil on canvas 91 x 71 cm is a larger than life bust portrait achieved in 1961 showing Bernadine within a deep sleep. Her turned head avoids both the lover and the viewer. Lucian had seen the effects of pregnancy on the naked flesh of the torso.
Life in Soho is conducive to these stories of another time. In 1959, Bernadine is 16 and wishing to escape a too rigorous education. Lucian is twenty years older. On the following year, she is pregnant with their first daughter, Bella. Francis and Bernadine are deeply and sincerely in love, but not enough to live together. Their relationship, however, is sustainable: a second birth will follow and their friendship will last until the end of their lives, a few days apart in 2011.
The art of his friend Francis Bacon is resolutely modern. Expression has replaced realism. Lucian wants to follow this path and observes Bernadine with a renewed attention. The theme of the sleeping woman, previously experienced by Picasso with Marie-Thérèse, is conducive to confidence and privacy. Lucian is perhaps not yet the incorrigible talkative of his later career: he lets Bernadine asleep.
On February 10, 2016, Sotheby's sold for £ 16M from a lower estimate of £ 7M Pregnant girl, lot 17. This oil on canvas 91 x 71 cm is a larger than life bust portrait achieved in 1961 showing Bernadine within a deep sleep. Her turned head avoids both the lover and the viewer. Lucian had seen the effects of pregnancy on the naked flesh of the torso.
1983 After Watteau
2022 SOLD for $ 86M by Christie's
Lucian Freud was keen to confront his art with antique or ancient masterpieces.
In 1981 the renowned collector Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza is sitting in Lucian's studio in London for a portrait, achieved in 1982. Behind the head, the artist paints in a fair rendering a half hidden replica of a small fête galante by Watteau recently acquired by the Baron.
The Watteau, titled Pierrot content, features five characters in a garden, four of them seated in a row on a bench. A pretty Columbine is playing mandolin. Lucian will transfer this scene into his own universe in a stand alone picture.
Lucian's oil on canvas, titled Large Interior, W11 (After Watteau) is completed in 1983. It is unprecedented in Lucian Freud's art by its size, 185 x 198 cm, by the staging of more than two characters, and by the fact that the sitters dis not attend together the posing sessions.
It is typical by its very thick impasto and by the fact that Watteau's figures have been replaced by close relatives including his daughter Bella playing Columbine with the mandolin.
The rest of it is Lucian's fancy. The scene is staged in his studio, also referred by the part post code W11 in the title. Watteau's charming high society faces are replaced by unpleasantly concerned figures in creased attire, two of them bare foot.The fountain is now a sink with a running tap. The bench had been recently acquired by Lucian for £ 7.
After Watteau was sold for $ 86M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 34.
In 1981 the renowned collector Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza is sitting in Lucian's studio in London for a portrait, achieved in 1982. Behind the head, the artist paints in a fair rendering a half hidden replica of a small fête galante by Watteau recently acquired by the Baron.
The Watteau, titled Pierrot content, features five characters in a garden, four of them seated in a row on a bench. A pretty Columbine is playing mandolin. Lucian will transfer this scene into his own universe in a stand alone picture.
Lucian's oil on canvas, titled Large Interior, W11 (After Watteau) is completed in 1983. It is unprecedented in Lucian Freud's art by its size, 185 x 198 cm, by the staging of more than two characters, and by the fact that the sitters dis not attend together the posing sessions.
It is typical by its very thick impasto and by the fact that Watteau's figures have been replaced by close relatives including his daughter Bella playing Columbine with the mandolin.
The rest of it is Lucian's fancy. The scene is staged in his studio, also referred by the part post code W11 in the title. Watteau's charming high society faces are replaced by unpleasantly concerned figures in creased attire, two of them bare foot.The fountain is now a sink with a running tap. The bench had been recently acquired by Lucian for £ 7.
After Watteau was sold for $ 86M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 34.
1986-1987 Girl with Closed Eyes
2022 SOLD for £ 15.2M by Christie's
Girl with closed eyes, oil on canvas 46 x 60 cm painted by Lucian Freud in 1986 and 1987, is the tender portrait of a serene girl with a quiet smile through her slightly parting lips. Its model is identified as Janey, a friend of the artist. It displays the details of the flesh in the thick impasto of a wide range of hues of the skin.
While the nude figure is here cropped below the breast, it may be seen in the following of the Naked portrait with reflection painted in 1980, sold for £ 11.8M by Christie's in 2008. In both examples the fully grown woman is reclined on her back in a relaxed attitude and viewed from above in a diagonal composition.
Girl with closed eyes was sold for £ 15.2M from a lower estimate of £ 10M by Christie's on March 1, 2022, lot 36.
While the nude figure is here cropped below the breast, it may be seen in the following of the Naked portrait with reflection painted in 1980, sold for £ 11.8M by Christie's in 2008. In both examples the fully grown woman is reclined on her back in a relaxed attitude and viewed from above in a diagonal composition.
Girl with closed eyes was sold for £ 15.2M from a lower estimate of £ 10M by Christie's on March 1, 2022, lot 36.
1992 Ib and her Husband
2007 SOLD for $ 19.4M by Christie's
When he turned the age of 70, Lucian Freud was taken in a frenzy of creativity.
An oil on canvas 168 x 147 cm painted in 1992 features his natural daughter Ib and her husband lying on a bed. Ib is pregnant with her third child and sleeps with a blissful smile. Pat tenderly embraces her. It was sold for $ 19.4M by Christie's on November 13, 2007, lot 9, and passed at Christie's on June 30, 2016, lot 26.
Lucian made much effort for keeping his models steady. Now Ib is sleeping. The real engine of Lucian's creativity is not empathy, even with his natural children whom he was so happy to meet again after having abandoned their childhood.
Lucian developed an obsessive idea of perfection, up to somehow ignoring the plurality of art. In the pre-sale video made by Christie's to introduce Benefits Supervisor resting, the already very old artist is seen stating with an intense conviction: "I want each picture I am working on to be the only picture that everyone has ever done".
Throughout his long career, he also maintained his belief that he is above all interested in the physical presence, reducing the human being to the animality of the body. Lucian is not Sigmund. however there is a link between his obsession and the unforgettable personality of his grandfather.
Lucian painted bodies, naked or not. But it is a still life with book painted in 1991-1992 that provides the key to the genesis of his inspiration. The book is a history of Egypt opened on two photos of figures of El Amarna. Sigmund Freud was a great lover of antiques that supported his vision on the continuity of human psychology and the Amarna art is a rare moment in art history of a successful quest for an absolute realism using the technique of painted sculptures.
Lucian is not a sculptor but his impasto becomes extremely thick, bringing art and life closer through the availability of all color pigments. The culmination of this approach in 1993 is the study of his own naked body shown in his painting occupation. The masterpiece of Lucian Freud is in fact nothing else than himself fossilized for ever within his own impasto.
He was wrong. The art continues to evolve despite his desire to freeze it. We will one day forget Lucian Freud. We will never forget the bust of Nefertiti, the eternal masterpiece of Amarna art.
An oil on canvas 168 x 147 cm painted in 1992 features his natural daughter Ib and her husband lying on a bed. Ib is pregnant with her third child and sleeps with a blissful smile. Pat tenderly embraces her. It was sold for $ 19.4M by Christie's on November 13, 2007, lot 9, and passed at Christie's on June 30, 2016, lot 26.
Lucian made much effort for keeping his models steady. Now Ib is sleeping. The real engine of Lucian's creativity is not empathy, even with his natural children whom he was so happy to meet again after having abandoned their childhood.
Lucian developed an obsessive idea of perfection, up to somehow ignoring the plurality of art. In the pre-sale video made by Christie's to introduce Benefits Supervisor resting, the already very old artist is seen stating with an intense conviction: "I want each picture I am working on to be the only picture that everyone has ever done".
Throughout his long career, he also maintained his belief that he is above all interested in the physical presence, reducing the human being to the animality of the body. Lucian is not Sigmund. however there is a link between his obsession and the unforgettable personality of his grandfather.
Lucian painted bodies, naked or not. But it is a still life with book painted in 1991-1992 that provides the key to the genesis of his inspiration. The book is a history of Egypt opened on two photos of figures of El Amarna. Sigmund Freud was a great lover of antiques that supported his vision on the continuity of human psychology and the Amarna art is a rare moment in art history of a successful quest for an absolute realism using the technique of painted sculptures.
Lucian is not a sculptor but his impasto becomes extremely thick, bringing art and life closer through the availability of all color pigments. The culmination of this approach in 1993 is the study of his own naked body shown in his painting occupation. The masterpiece of Lucian Freud is in fact nothing else than himself fossilized for ever within his own impasto.
He was wrong. The art continues to evolve despite his desire to freeze it. We will one day forget Lucian Freud. We will never forget the bust of Nefertiti, the eternal masterpiece of Amarna art.
Benefits Supervisor
1
1994 Resting
2015 SOLD for $ 56M by Christie's
Relying on his knowledge of art history, Lucian Freud is not like everyone else. His considerations on others are not based on the expression of faces or attitudes but on the smallest details of entirely naked bodies, male and female, which he observes endlessly like a zoologist who has to describe a rare specimen.
Leigh Bowery has been one of his male models since 1988. Leigh is a post-punk dancer, stylist and creator of night clubs. He outrageously exhibits his homosexuality with exuberant make-up, high heels and latex body tights.
In 1990 Leigh invites Lucian to meet Sue Tilley who is benefits supervisor in an employment agency and cashier of one of his clubs in Piccadilly. Sue is 33 years old and weighs about 137 kg. She is an interesting specimen : Lucian considers that her flesh without muscle has generated an unusual texture of the skin, of which he observes all the folds and shadows. In real life her obesity is less visible because the body is held by her clothing.
The first painting had been done in 1993. Sue was lying naked on the floor. Lucian appreciates that this uncomfortable position is not conducive for achieving his goal. He will set a sofa on which Sue can now keep and retrieve a serene position. The repetitive sitting sessions occupy every Saturday and Sunday and sometimes more for several months in a row. The small precise movement of the brush follows a systematic observation of the model, without impulse or emotion, for many hours.
Freud used Sue's professional occupation as a nickname. The second painting, Benefits Supervisor resting, was executed in 1994. This oil on canvas 151 x 161 cm was sold for $ 56M from a lower estimate of $ 30M by Christie's on May 13, 2015, lot 31B. The artist has succeeded. The body is the only subject of this nude painting The folded legs accentuate the swellings. The head head thrown backwards has no other role than to ensure the stability of the attitude.
Leigh Bowery has been one of his male models since 1988. Leigh is a post-punk dancer, stylist and creator of night clubs. He outrageously exhibits his homosexuality with exuberant make-up, high heels and latex body tights.
In 1990 Leigh invites Lucian to meet Sue Tilley who is benefits supervisor in an employment agency and cashier of one of his clubs in Piccadilly. Sue is 33 years old and weighs about 137 kg. She is an interesting specimen : Lucian considers that her flesh without muscle has generated an unusual texture of the skin, of which he observes all the folds and shadows. In real life her obesity is less visible because the body is held by her clothing.
The first painting had been done in 1993. Sue was lying naked on the floor. Lucian appreciates that this uncomfortable position is not conducive for achieving his goal. He will set a sofa on which Sue can now keep and retrieve a serene position. The repetitive sitting sessions occupy every Saturday and Sunday and sometimes more for several months in a row. The small precise movement of the brush follows a systematic observation of the model, without impulse or emotion, for many hours.
Freud used Sue's professional occupation as a nickname. The second painting, Benefits Supervisor resting, was executed in 1994. This oil on canvas 151 x 161 cm was sold for $ 56M from a lower estimate of $ 30M by Christie's on May 13, 2015, lot 31B. The artist has succeeded. The body is the only subject of this nude painting The folded legs accentuate the swellings. The head head thrown backwards has no other role than to ensure the stability of the attitude.
2
1995 Sleeping
2008 SOLD for $ 33.6M by Christie's
Benefits Supervisor sleeping, oil on canvas 151 x 219 cm painted in 1995, was sold for $ 33.6M by Christie's on May 13, 2008, lot 37.
The body is reclining on the sofa with an acceptable head position on a cushion, probably at the request of the model, bringing a better impression of quiet intimacy. Please watch Christie's interview with Sue Tilley beside this painting before the sale.
Leigh Bowery had died of AIDS in December 1994. Sue Tilley will publish a biography of him in 1997.
The body is reclining on the sofa with an acceptable head position on a cushion, probably at the request of the model, bringing a better impression of quiet intimacy. Please watch Christie's interview with Sue Tilley beside this painting before the sale.
Leigh Bowery had died of AIDS in December 1994. Sue Tilley will publish a biography of him in 1997.
1997 Ib Reading
2023 SOLD for £ 17M by Sotheby's
There is always some reason for Lucian Freud to execute a painting. Going older, he manages to reconcile himself with his memory including some regrets to have neglected his children.
His daughter Isobel "Ib" Boyt later said : "Each time I did a picture with him I swore I'd never do it again, but I then do because it is a way of having a relationship with my dad as well as there is a part of me that if he wants to paint me I am quite flattered".
Ib reading, oil on canvas 138 x 157 cm, was painted in 1997 when the father was 75 and the daughter 36.
Lucian usually took care that is sitter is comfortably positioned to go into the endless pose sessions. It is not the case in this painting. The open book is too far away for reading and she only has a gaze to it, held unbalanced on her lap.
The book is clearly identified as A la recherche du temps perdu by Proust. Lucian maliciously suggests that Ib is losing her time when posing for him.
He obviously also considers that the estrangement with his children during their youth was an irreparable missed time. That latter interpretation is confirmed by the appearance in the background of the chest where he kept the letters and photos from his own youth. It is too late : Ib is growing unglamorous, as evidenced in his signature impasto by the texture on her face and bare legs and feet.
Ib reading was sold for £ 17M by Sotheby's on March 1, 2023, lot 106. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
His daughter Isobel "Ib" Boyt later said : "Each time I did a picture with him I swore I'd never do it again, but I then do because it is a way of having a relationship with my dad as well as there is a part of me that if he wants to paint me I am quite flattered".
Ib reading, oil on canvas 138 x 157 cm, was painted in 1997 when the father was 75 and the daughter 36.
Lucian usually took care that is sitter is comfortably positioned to go into the endless pose sessions. It is not the case in this painting. The open book is too far away for reading and she only has a gaze to it, held unbalanced on her lap.
The book is clearly identified as A la recherche du temps perdu by Proust. Lucian maliciously suggests that Ib is losing her time when posing for him.
He obviously also considers that the estrangement with his children during their youth was an irreparable missed time. That latter interpretation is confirmed by the appearance in the background of the chest where he kept the letters and photos from his own youth. It is too late : Ib is growing unglamorous, as evidenced in his signature impasto by the texture on her face and bare legs and feet.
Ib reading was sold for £ 17M by Sotheby's on March 1, 2023, lot 106. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
2002 Hockney
2021 SOLD for £ 15M by Sotheby's
The portraiture by Lucian Freud is unprecedented and one of a kind. He manages to offer to the viewer an intimacy with the sitter, including with himself. A male or female nudity gets rid of man-made artifacts, providing another entry into the soul.
In the portrait heads of their friends, Freud and Bacon had an opposite approach. Bacon relied on photos without the physical presence of his model. Freud caught the model in interminable sessions in his studio during several months. He had to overcome his or her impatience by his chat, made of wit and gossip. He is a Western Scheherazade. Famously, by temperament, Bacon could not play that game. His portrait by Freud in 1957 was left unfinished.
Freud could indeed not use photos. He was peering through repeated close up inspections all the dissymmetries, stains and defects of the skin, on the face and on the nude body. He added layer over layer without erasing up to a deep impasto, creating a sort of paint sculpture on the canvas.
Viewed in photo without that tridimensional effect, the face lines are harsh. In a 2002 picture, Kate Moss does not look like a 28 year old supermodel. A figure by Freud is impersonating without being realistic. This Naked Portrait in pregnancy was sold for £ 3.9M by Christie's on February 9, 2005, lot 28.
Also in 2002, Freud added David Hockney to his sequence of head portraits of friends. At nearly 80, Freud was at the culmination of his signature style. Hockney was 65. His gaze is penetrating and he his ready to add his contribution to the talking. The spectacles were necessary but not so important : Freud added them at the last session. As an artist, Hockney later made clever comment about that experience and on the artistic practice of Lucian Freud.
This 41 x 31 cm oil on canvas larger than life size was sold for £ 15M from a lower estimate of £ 8M by Sotheby's on June 29, 2021, lot 10. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
In the portrait heads of their friends, Freud and Bacon had an opposite approach. Bacon relied on photos without the physical presence of his model. Freud caught the model in interminable sessions in his studio during several months. He had to overcome his or her impatience by his chat, made of wit and gossip. He is a Western Scheherazade. Famously, by temperament, Bacon could not play that game. His portrait by Freud in 1957 was left unfinished.
Freud could indeed not use photos. He was peering through repeated close up inspections all the dissymmetries, stains and defects of the skin, on the face and on the nude body. He added layer over layer without erasing up to a deep impasto, creating a sort of paint sculpture on the canvas.
Viewed in photo without that tridimensional effect, the face lines are harsh. In a 2002 picture, Kate Moss does not look like a 28 year old supermodel. A figure by Freud is impersonating without being realistic. This Naked Portrait in pregnancy was sold for £ 3.9M by Christie's on February 9, 2005, lot 28.
Also in 2002, Freud added David Hockney to his sequence of head portraits of friends. At nearly 80, Freud was at the culmination of his signature style. Hockney was 65. His gaze is penetrating and he his ready to add his contribution to the talking. The spectacles were necessary but not so important : Freud added them at the last session. As an artist, Hockney later made clever comment about that experience and on the artistic practice of Lucian Freud.
This 41 x 31 cm oil on canvas larger than life size was sold for £ 15M from a lower estimate of £ 8M by Sotheby's on June 29, 2021, lot 10. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
2002-2003 Portrait on a White Cover
2018 SOLD for £ 22.5M by Sotheby's
Since the death of Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud was the most outstanding living British artist. This role seems difficult to play. For several years he relentlessly uses the permanent access to the National Gallery granted to him by its management to re-examine ancient art.
In 2002 the Tate Gallery organizes a major retrospective displayed in nine rooms according to the chronology of his art. The conclusion of this journey is Freud's statement on the nude. He considers clothes like a façade that hides instincts and desires. He wants to see his models as physically comfortable as animals.
The links are also close with the Wallace Collection which wishes to organize an exhibition dedicated to Lucian Freud's recent works. This museum has one of the most beautiful female nudes by Titian, in Perseus and Andromeda. The nudes by Freud will have to be at a comparable level. He is looking for his Andromeda.
He finds Sophie who works for Tate Publishing. She is tall and slim with long legs. Titian's Andromeda is standing with one arm raised for anchoring to the rock. Freud knows that his reclining nudes are typical in his art. He puts Sophie on the bed with a raised arm, in full nudity.
Portrait on a white cover, oil on canvas 117 x 143 cm, is painted by Freud in 2002-2003 and will be exhibited at the Wallace Collection in May 2004. This painting was sold for £ 22.5M from a lower estimate of £ 17M by Sotheby's on June 26, 2018, lot 6. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
With family and friends the old artist still knew how to maintain a naked person in confidence, specially through his famous chatter. Julie and Martin painted in 2001 is a good example, sold for $ 17M by Christie's on November 12, 2014. With Sophie, chosen by Freud for her Andromeda body, it does not go as well. The sleeping nude of the Portrait on a white cover has clenched fingers in both hands and the artist obsessed with realism did not make them flexible.
In 2002 the Tate Gallery organizes a major retrospective displayed in nine rooms according to the chronology of his art. The conclusion of this journey is Freud's statement on the nude. He considers clothes like a façade that hides instincts and desires. He wants to see his models as physically comfortable as animals.
The links are also close with the Wallace Collection which wishes to organize an exhibition dedicated to Lucian Freud's recent works. This museum has one of the most beautiful female nudes by Titian, in Perseus and Andromeda. The nudes by Freud will have to be at a comparable level. He is looking for his Andromeda.
He finds Sophie who works for Tate Publishing. She is tall and slim with long legs. Titian's Andromeda is standing with one arm raised for anchoring to the rock. Freud knows that his reclining nudes are typical in his art. He puts Sophie on the bed with a raised arm, in full nudity.
Portrait on a white cover, oil on canvas 117 x 143 cm, is painted by Freud in 2002-2003 and will be exhibited at the Wallace Collection in May 2004. This painting was sold for £ 22.5M from a lower estimate of £ 17M by Sotheby's on June 26, 2018, lot 6. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
With family and friends the old artist still knew how to maintain a naked person in confidence, specially through his famous chatter. Julie and Martin painted in 2001 is a good example, sold for $ 17M by Christie's on November 12, 2014. With Sophie, chosen by Freud for her Andromeda body, it does not go as well. The sleeping nude of the Portrait on a white cover has clenched fingers in both hands and the artist obsessed with realism did not make them flexible.
2003-2004 The Brigadier
2015 SOLD for $ 35M by Christie's
Before he retired in 1994, the figure of Andrew Parker Bowles often appeared in news photos but he remained anonymous despite his imposing posture. Colonel commanding the Household Cavalry before his promotion to the honorary rank of Brigadier, he assured the bodyguard to Queen Elizabeth II.
This aristocrat had previously shared the royal children's passion for horses and polo. The Prince of Wales will much later marry Camilla newly divorced from the Brigadier. The hero attended the wedding without resentment.
Lucian Freud was fond of horses, too, and a longtime friend of Andrew Parker Bowles. He painted his portrait in 2003-2004. During 18 months at a rate of three times a week and four hours per session, the Brigadier came to sit in the artist's studio.
Lucian's process is unique in the history of portrait painting. He rushed to the face of his model to inspect a tiny detail that provoked an equally abrupt return to save it on the canvas. Then he saturated his guest in an endless chatter before being ready to proceed with another detail. Lucian was very witty, which was quite necessary to maintain the patience of his models.
The obsession of the artist was to create lifelike works at the opposite of the dryness of a photograph. His method totally different from Bacon's led also to a strong emotion but Lucian managed to keep the realistic features of his characters. The Brigadier is still admiring today his portrait by Freud, better than life even in the glare of the medals.
The officer is not Sue Tilley. Lucian had not imposed an acrobatic attitude to this dignified sexagenarian who was indeed required to take the same position again at each new session. The result looks like a classic military portrait excepted that it is extraordinary in its psychological rendering.
This oil on canvas 224 x 138 cm was sold for $ 35M by Christie's on November 10, 2015, lot 31B.
This aristocrat had previously shared the royal children's passion for horses and polo. The Prince of Wales will much later marry Camilla newly divorced from the Brigadier. The hero attended the wedding without resentment.
Lucian Freud was fond of horses, too, and a longtime friend of Andrew Parker Bowles. He painted his portrait in 2003-2004. During 18 months at a rate of three times a week and four hours per session, the Brigadier came to sit in the artist's studio.
Lucian's process is unique in the history of portrait painting. He rushed to the face of his model to inspect a tiny detail that provoked an equally abrupt return to save it on the canvas. Then he saturated his guest in an endless chatter before being ready to proceed with another detail. Lucian was very witty, which was quite necessary to maintain the patience of his models.
The obsession of the artist was to create lifelike works at the opposite of the dryness of a photograph. His method totally different from Bacon's led also to a strong emotion but Lucian managed to keep the realistic features of his characters. The Brigadier is still admiring today his portrait by Freud, better than life even in the glare of the medals.
The officer is not Sue Tilley. Lucian had not imposed an acrobatic attitude to this dignified sexagenarian who was indeed required to take the same position again at each new session. The result looks like a classic military portrait excepted that it is extraordinary in its psychological rendering.
This oil on canvas 224 x 138 cm was sold for $ 35M by Christie's on November 10, 2015, lot 31B.
