Painting: Double Portrait 1985-86
Oil on canvas. 31x35" (78.7x88.9cm)
Private collection, United Kingdom.
Photo: © Private Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library © 2007 Lucian Freud
Etching: Eli 2002
Etching Plate: 26 x 33 1/2" (66x85.1cm). Sheet: 30 7/16 x 37 5/8" (77.3 x 95.6 cm). Publisher: Matthew Marks Gallery, New York. Printer: Marc Balakjian at Studio Prints, London. Edition: 46.
Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.
Digital Image Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, Jonathan Muzikar © 2007 Lucian Freud
Freud has always painted his beloved whippets in the same style as his paints his human models, and gives them the same importance in a composition.
"A painter must think of everything he sees as being there entirely for his own use and pleasure. The artist who tries to serve nature is only an executive artist. And, since the model he so faithfully copies is not going to be hung up next to the picture, since the picture is going to be there on its own, it is of no interest whether it is an accurate copy of the model."1
References:
1. Lucian Freud quoted in "Face Off" by Martin Gayford, Modern Painters, Autumn 2004.