Lucian Freud is one of the greatest British painters of the twentieth century and is commonly associated with the School of London and a circle of friends including Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, R. B. Kitaj and Leon Kossoff.
Since the 1940s he has obsessively painted, drawn and etched those close to him in painstaking works in which his stated aim is to embody the presence of the subject before him.
1922
Born in Berlin, to Jewish parents. His father is the youngest son of Sigmund Freud
1933 - 1938
Moves to Britain with his family. Studies at Dartington Hall, Devon; Dane Dourt; and Bryanston
1939 - 1942
Central School of Arts and Crafts, London; followed by the East Anglican School of Painting and Drawing, Dedham under Cedric Morris
1940
Self-portrait drawing published in Horizon
1951
Receives Purchase Prize from Arts Council of Great Britain for Interior in Paddington exhibited in Sixty Paintings for '51 as part of the Festival of Britain.
1949 - 1954
Visiting tutor at the Slade School of Fine Art.
1993
Awarded the Order of Merit.
2011
Freud passes away.
Selected Exhibitions
2009
Lucian Freud. Works on Paper, James Hyman Gallery, London
2008
Lucian Freud; Major Prints, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Small Format, Faggionato Fine Arts, London
2007
Paiting Now! - Back to Figuration, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2006
Portraits, James Hyman Gallery, London and after, Galerie Haas AG, Zurich, Switzerland
PAPER, Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto, ON, USA
2005
Creative Tenison - British Art 1900-1950, The Fine Art Society, London
2004
Lucian Freud: Etchings 1964-2004, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Scotland
Matisee to Freud: A Critic's Choice, The Alexander Walker Bequest, The British Museum, London
Fresh Works on Paper, 5th Anniversary Exhibition, James Kelly Contemporary, Sante Fe, New Mexico
Art of the Garden, Tate Britain, Linbudy Galleries, London
2003
Lucian Freud: Drawings 1940, Timothy Taylor Gallery; travelled to Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Important Works on Paper & Ceramics, Rex Irwin, Sydney, Australia
Portraiture, Karyn Love Grove Gallery, Los Angeles
2002
Twentieth Century British Paintings and Drawings, James Hyman Gallery, LondonFreud, Tate Britain, London; travelled to Fundacila Caixa, Barcelona; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Lucian Freud; Prints, StKunstmuseum Spendhaus Reutlingen, Germany
The Nude in Twentieth - Century Art, Kunsthalle in Emden, Germany
2001
Lucian Freud, Naked Portraits, Works from the 1940s to the 1990s, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, 100 Drawings and Photographs, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
2000
Auerbach, Bacon, Freud, Kossoff, James Hyman Gallery, London, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Lucian Freud: Recent Work, 1997-2000, Acquavella Contemporary Art, Inc., New York
A New Painting, White Cube, London
Twentieth-Century Art, Acquavella Contemporary Art, Inc., New York
Mirada Fuerte: Pintura Figurativa de Londres, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico
The School of London and Their Friends: The Collection of Elaine and Melvin Merians, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven; Traveled to Neuberger Museum of Art, State University of New York
Encounters: New Art from Old, National Gallery, London
Auerbach, Bacon, Freud, Kossoff, Blaine Fine Art, London
1999
Lucian Freud; Etchings from the 1990s, Marlborough Graphics, Ltd., London
Lucian Freud, Etchings from the Paine Webber Art Collection, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut; traveled to Museumof Contemporary Art, San Diego; Seattle Art Museum; Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston; Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, California; and Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Regarding Beauty, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; Traveled to Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
1998
Lucian Freud; Some New Paintings, Tate Gallery, London
Lucian Freud, Paintings and Drawings, Theo Waddington Fine Art, London
L'Ecole de Londres: de Bacon Bevan, Fondation Dina Vierny-Musée Maillol, Paris; Traveled to Santiago de Compostella, Spain; and Vienna
Sargent to Freud: Modern British Painting and Drawing in theBeaverbrook Art Collection, Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada; Traveled to Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, United Kingdom; and Canada House, London
1997
Lucian Freud, Early Works, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Lucian Freud, Radierungen, Rubenspreis der Stadt Siegen, Haus Orienstrasse-Adolf-SStiftung, Ausstellungsforum des Siegerlandmuseums, Siegen, Germany
1996
Thinking Print: From Books to Billboards, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1987 - 1988
Retrospective exhibition organised by the British Council at the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC, and travelling to Paris, London and Berlin; the first major representation of Freud's work shown outside Britain.
1974
First retrospective exhibition, organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain at the Hayward Gallery, London, and touring.
1954
Represents Britain at the 27th Venice Biennale of Art with Ben Nicholson and Francis Bacon.
1944
First one-man exhibition at Alex Reid and Lefevre Gallery.
Selected Collections
Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, San Francisco, USA
Arkansas Art Center, USA
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery, London
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, New Brunswick, Canada
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France
British Museum, London
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg, USA
Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico
City of Southampton Art Gallery, Southampton
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Fundacion Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain
Government Art Collection, London
Gray Art Gallery and Museum, Hartlepool
Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Prestonn
Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA
Manchester City Art Galleries, Manchester
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA
Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Wales
National Portrait Gallery, London
New York Public Library, New York
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
Rochdale Art Gallert, Rochdale
Royal Collage of Art, London
Saatchi Collection, London
Saint Louis Art Museum, USA
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland
Sigmund Freud Museum, London
Stadelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, Germany
Swindon Art Gallery, Swindon
Tate Collection, London
The Art Institute of Chicago, USA
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland, USA
The British Council, London
Thyseen-Bornemisza Collection, Lugano, Switzerland
University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Walsall Art Gallery, Walsall
Publications
Feaver, William, Lucian Freud, Rizzoli International Publications, 2007
Figura, Starr, & Lowry, Glenn D. (ed.), Lucian Freud: The Painter's Etchings, Museum of Modern Art, 2007
Freud, Lucian, Lucian Freud On Paper, Jonathan Cape, 2008
Freud, Lucian & Smee, Sebastian, Lucian Freud: 1996-2005, Jonathan Cape, 2005
Hughes, Robert, Lucian Freud Paintings, Thames & Hudson, 1989
Smee, Sebastian, Lucian Freud: Unflinching Truth (Taschen Basic Art Series), Taschen, 2007
Smee, Sebastian & Freud, Lucian, Freud at Work: Lucian Freud in Conversation with Sebastian Smee, Jonathan Cape, 2006