For the first time in history the Royal Academy of Arts in London, in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, is bringing together Lucian Freud’s self-portraits. The exhibition will display more than 50 paintings, prints and drawings in which this modern master of British art turned his unflinching eye firmly on himself. One of the most celebrated painters of our time, Lucian Freud is also one of very few 20th-century artists who portrayed themselves with such consistency. Spanning nearly seven decades his self-portraits give a fascinating insight into both his psyche and his development as a painter, from his earliest portrait painted in 1939 to the final one executed 64 years later. When seen together, his portraits represent an engrossing study into the dynamic of ageing and the process of self-representation. This intensely compelling exhibition creates a unique opportunity for EXHIBITION ON SCREEN to reveal the life’s work of a master in one show.
Direction
Bickerstaff lets the paint speak—no cheesy reenactments.
Cinematography
Close-ups that rival Freud's own merciless eye.
Production
Rare access to works never hung together before.
Director
David Bickerstaff
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Freud once gambled away a painting to settle a debt with the Queen's racehorse trainer.
The exhibition's chronological hang reveals Freud's face gradually abandoning psychology for pure flesh—by the end, he's meat studying meat.
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