Lucian Freud

Born in Germany in 1922 and the grandson of none other than the renowned "father of psychoanalysis" Sigmund Freud, British artist Lucian Freud has left behind an artistic legacy that belongs to the history of contemporary art. He died in London at the age of 88 and, although the cause of dead has not been made public, close friends of the artist informed that he has been suffering from an illness. Freud's early paintings and his subsequent works produced until the 1950s are directly connected to surrealism. From then on his body of work is regarded as one of the most important manifestations of British figurative art. Freud maintained an easily recognizable pictorial style that responded to his interest in the human figure, as his "morbidly exploitative" gaze would leave a visceral, aggressive, and materic rendering of the flesh within each of his portraits. The dramatic stances of the characters he describes seduce the viewer with paint-laden strokes complemented with shadows that serve to contrast sections of the body in order to further support and to strengthen the scene described in each of his works. Some of the most famous works by Lucian Freud include: Girl with a White Dog (1950-51); Reflection (Self Portrait, 1985); Benefits Supervisor Sleeping (1995), sold by the Christie's auction house for $33,641,000 USD; Naked Man, Back View (1991-92); The Queen (2000-2001); The Brigadier (2003-04); among others.