Lucian Freud OM was an intensely private person & hated to be interviewed.

I know of no other artist who could apply the oleaginous paint with such gusto as Lucian Freud.

The way he emphasized the sheer volume of the paint on to the canvas. The dry textured brushstrokes look as if he used dry plaster to get that sculptural quality.

The portraits of John Minton and his life long friend Francis Bacon painted in 1952 have a smoother quality to them. He used sable brushes to get that glassy effect of tempera, in comparison to the portrait of John Deakin painted in 1964 {which the late Daniel Farson owned} in which he used hog-hair brushes giving a more impasto finish. Deakin is looking somewhat bored after exhaustive sittings, whereas in the photographs by John Deakin in "John Deakin's Photographs" book, taken in the 1960s Freud's expression looks guarded.

Freud explored his subjects in the naked portraits with such psychological intensity, one wonders if his grandfather Sigmund Freud was just as unsettling on the couch.

Apart from the occasional outdoor views, he mainly concentrated on painting interiors. Lucian Freud said that he sought to paint those whom he knew & loved, painting his friends, locals, his children & mother. The paintings of his mother are very tender & moving pieces. She looks intensely sad, but then Freud had this ability to capture the vulnerability of the sitter.

His reflection {self-portrait} painted in 1985 has exceptionally realistic form. The contours of the skeletal frame just ripple under the surface. His scumbled expressive brushstrokes in yellow ochre, cool greys & finishing with that cremnitz white which has a translucency that succeeds in bringing the veins close to the surface.

Some of Lucian Freud's paintings and etchings may be seen at the Tate Online and National Portrait Gallery in London.

Extracts from an interview Freud gave to William Feaver can be heard at the BBC website.

You can see a handful of Freud's works online here at the BBC 'Your Paintings' website.

Lucian Freud Portraits
Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London
from 9^th February to May 27^th 2012.

Lucian Freud: Studio Life
Photographs by David Dawson at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert Gallery, Bury St. London
until March 2^nd 2012

Lucian Freud
An exhibition of Lucian Freud's watercolours, etchings and drawings on nature studies, nudes and portraits. James Hyman Gallery, London W1 in Spring 2009

An exhibition of Lucian Freud's early works of 32 paintings & drawings dating from 1940 - 1958 at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert Gallery, Bury St. London from October 9^th to 12^th December 2008

Lucian Freud & Frank Auerbach
Paintings at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London SW7 until May 29^th 2006

New Self Portrait
A new 50 inch square oil portrait by Lucian Freud titled “The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer” was on view at the National Portrait Gallery in London until May 8^th 2005. The painting then travelled to a Freud retrospective in Venice in June 2005.

Solo Show
A solo show of Lucian Freud's new work of paintings & etchings was held at the Wallace Collection in London from 31st March to 18th April 2004, before moving to New York in May

Lucian Freud: Etchings 1946 - 2004
From 2^nd April to 13^th June 2004
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Lucian Freud in the Studio
From 30^th March to 1^st August 2004
Photographs by David Dawson, National Portrait Gallery, London WC2

80^th Birthday Retrospective
There was a major retrospective of Lucian Freud's work in June 2002 at London's Tate Britain to mark the artist's eightieth birthday.
Francis Bacon & Lucian Freud became lifelong friends in the 1940's. Freud painted Bacon and he was very keen to have the painting, which was stolen in 1988, exhibited in that exhibition. The painting has not been recovered up to now.

Updated 6^th June 2012