Artist Details

Lucian Freud

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After Chardin

LUCIAN FREUD (1922- )

‘After Chardin’, an etching inspired by the work of the 18th century French master, is number 72 of an edition of 80 by an artist hailed as a modern titan. Now would seem to be a good time to get hold of a Freud etching – the Museum of Modern Art in New York is holding a major exhibition of his etchings. 'Lucian Freud: The Painter's Etchings' opened in December 2007 and runs until March 2008.

A note accompanying the exhibition runs - "One of the foremost figurative artists working today, Lucian Freud (British, born Germany 1922) has redefined portraiture and the nude through his unblinking scrutiny of the human form. Although best known as a painter, etching has become integral to his practice. This exhibition will present the full scope of Freud's achievements in etching, including some seventy-five examples ranging from rare, early experiments in the 1940s to the increasingly large and complex compositions created since his rediscovery of the medium in the early 1980s." (see www.moma.org/exhibitions/2007/freud)

Freud has been described as possibly the greatest living exponent of the art of etching, in which an image is drawn on to a copper sheet through a thin layer of wax. This version of ‘After Chardin’ seems to have been one of two done by Freud from Chardin’s work in the National Gallery in London for a major exhibition there in 2000, ‘Encounters: New Art from Old”. That exhibition, featuring 24 major living artists, also travelled to the US.

In the summer of last yea, the Irish Museum of Modern Art hosted an exhibition of Freud’s paintings, works on paper and etchings, and described him as “arguably the most important and distinguished figurative painter working today”.

One of Freud’s most recent portraits is of the well-known Donegal businessman, Pat ‘Big Hill’ Doherty from Buncrana.

Freud is the grandson of the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud.