Head of Bruce Bernard

This etching is the first of three portraits that Freud made of his friend, the photographer, writer and picture editor, Bruce Bernard. Freud had first met Bernard in 1942 when the artist was twenty and Bernard a youth of fourteen, and in the ensuing decades the two men forged an intense and lasting friendship. Although their association was a long one, and Freud had requested to paint Bernard on numerous occasions, Bernard was reticent to accept, due to the artist's painstakingly slow method of painting. It was not until 1985 that he finally agreed, and 'considered accepting what I still saw as a burdensome honour' in sitting for a Freud portrait. The result was this fine etching, which took two drawings and 28 sittings to produce. The trial proof bears a personal dedication from Freud to Bernard.