Images
K E Y   W O R K S

All images © The Lucian Freud Archive.

Lucian Freud signed items @ ebay.co.uk (direct link to signed items and yes they are out there though rare)

Lucian Freud ~ Nude with Leg Up (Leigh Bowery)

Lucian Freud
Nude with Leg Up (Leigh Bowery), 1992
© The Lucian Freud Archive

Oil on linen
72 x90 1/8 in.

One cannot speak of Freud's males without mentioning one of his favorite subjects, Leigh Bowery. The two met at London’s Anthony d’Offay Gallery during a 1990 show that featured the offensive performance artist Bowery; Freud began painting Bowery’s portrait soon thereafter. "I found him perfectly beautiful," said Freud later. Bowery posed for Freud dozens of times over nearly four years, showing an exquisite largeness and a massive power contained within the male form. Bernard writes of the first collaboration between Bowery and Freud (Leigh Bowery Seated, 1990): "Bowery, posing as a huge, insouciant Lord of Misrule, lounges provocatively on his unworthily neat little throne, and seems to be questioning the artist about his conduct of the whole enterprise, while Freud refuses to be daunted by his not entirely mock-imperious sitter." Their relationship brought for Bowery the ironical sense of immortality he’d always desired. When Bowery died of AIDS in 1994, Freud's work seemed to slow.

Recommended: The best book for latter period of Freud's output is the 2005 book Lucian Freud: 1996 - 2005.

Lucian Freud signed items @ ebay.co.uk (direct link to signed items and yes they are out there though rare)

Gallery