Lucian Freud

(British, 1922–2011)

Lucian Freud was one of the major figurative painters of the 20th century. Working in an uncompromisingly confrontational style, his portraits and nudes were rendered with a thickly laden brush. Often painting himself, as well as family and friends his works are imbued with a distinctive psychological space. Painted under intense direct observation, usually over the course of many sittings, Freud observed of his practice: “The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes and, ironically, the more real.” Born on December 8, 1922 in Berlin, Germany he was the grandson of the famed psychologist Sigmund Freud. In 1933, he moved with his family to London to escape the persecution of Jews by the Nazi regime. He went on to study at the Central School of Art and Goldsmiths College, befriending Francis Bacon and associating with a group of figurative artists working in London during the late 1940s. During the course of his career he achieved widespread success and critical acclaim, notably painting a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II between 2000 and 2001. In 1983 Freud was appointed a Companion of Honour, and a member of the Order of Merit in 1993. The artist died on July 20, 2011 at the age of 88 in London, United Kingdom. Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Tate Gallery in London, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, among others.