Born in Berlin in 1922, Lucian Freud has become an exemplar of post-war modernism, a style of loose figuration pioneered by the School of London. Freud is the son of architect Ernst L. Freud and the grandson of psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud. After his family moved to England in 1933, he studied at the Central School of Art and East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing, before attending Goldsmiths College in 1942. His first solo exhibition was held at the Lefevre Gallery in 1944. Alongside Francis Bacon and Ben Nicholson, Freud represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1954. Retrospective exhibitions of Freud have included the Hayward Gallery, Whitechapel Art Gallery, the National Gallery, London and the Royal Academy of Arts.
Adopting a surrealist approach to traditional portraiture, Freud’s style has evolved into his infamous rugged realism, balanced with a fine attention to detail and expression. Typically capturing friends and family, Freud could convey an intimacy beyond the expected relationship between artist and subject.
