Artists You Should Know: Lucian Freud

After the Christie's London auction this past week, in which a portrait of a naked and pregnant Kate Moss fetched £3.9m, I received two separate emails from two gentlemen named Matt and Kerry. Matt wondered could I enlighten him about Lucian Freud, while a testier-sounding Kerry demanded to know how Lucian Freud rated seeing Kate Moss completely naked. Once I found out who the heck Kate Moss is, I wrote this profile for Matt and now advise Kerry to simmer down, as it's doubtful he was ever in the running to have a nude super model posing on his bed. (Just my opinion, Kerry, judging from your tone.)

Some people find Freud's work disturbing for other reasons, and call it bleak, as if his nudes resemble bags of meat. I don't see that; he seems to me to show reality as well as compassion. It's probably yet another prime example of the subjective viewing of art. Goodness, he must like people - he is rumored, by one London newspaper, to have sired some 40 of them.