Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon Paintings: The eight most scandalous
The explosive synergy between Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud has made their unconventional 'bromance' one of the most critiqued of all twentieth-century relationships.
Innovative talents working in Post-War London, Bacon and Freud spearheaded a movement championing figurative representation when abstraction was the pervading fashion.
While their painterly style differs dramatically, their obsession with visceral, raw image-making that distorted the human form unites them as one in the popular imagination.
Ahead of the Freud and Bacon exhibition at Tate Britain, we round up the eight most controversial Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon paintings.
Friends, rivals, and finally enemies: it's Bacon vs Freud. Who wins?
With rolls of flesh spilling about the canvas, Lucian Freud's portrait of 'Big Sue' is ruthless. Painted with abundant globs of think paint, Freud's visceral depiction of his preferred plus size model, government worker, Sue Tilley, is a monumental thing.
Sold at Christie's in 2008 for a whopping $33M – at the time the most expensive painting ever sold by a living painter – Benefits Supervisor Sleeping is one of four celebrated canvases of this rotund sitter. Unflinching in its representation of the female form, this portrait showcases Freud's obsession with exacting contouring, tone and realism.
