Lucian Freud

Freud was born in Berlin, Germany in 1922. He is the grandson of famed psychologist Sigmund Freud.

Freud's early paintings are often associated with surrealism and depict people and plants in unusual juxtapositions. These works were usually painted with relatively thin paint, but during the 1950s he began to paint portraits, often nudes employing a thicker impasto. With this technique he would often clean his brush after each stroke. The colours in these paintings are typically muted. Often Freud's portraits depict only the sitter, sometimes sprawled naked on the floor or on a bed or juxtaposed with something else, as in "Girl With a White Dog" and "Naked Man With Rat." Freud's subjects are often the people in his life; friends, family, fellow painters, lovers, children. To quote the artist: "The subject matter is autobiographical, it's all to do with hope and memory and sensuality and involvement, really."