Who closer than my children?

Specialist Francis Outred compares two of Lucian Freud’s most intimate portraits — offered in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction on 11 February at Christie’s London

Having ultimately missed their childhood, it was through portraiture that Lucian Freud was able to build relationships with his children. In sitting after sitting he scrutinised every inch of their physical character and rendered them in extraordinary detail on canvas. Here, Francis Outred, Christie’s Head of Post-war and Contemporary Art in Europe, compares the two portraits of the sisters, Head of Esther and Head of Ib, and explores the influence of Francis Bacon on the choice of the rare 14 x 12 inch format.

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