Lucien Freud paintings have been bringing in record auction prices for the past couple of years. Christie’s in London is reporting that this trend will probably continue on October 19, 2008 when Freud’s portrait of Sir Francis Bacon goes on the auction block. The unfinished painting, which he painted in 1956, is expected to bring in more than $12 million. This is one of two paintings that Lucien painted of his friend Bacon, the first painting has been missing with its whereabouts unknown. Pilar Ordovas, head of contemporary art at Christie’s was recently quoted by Reuters Life! Saying, “Lucien Freud and Francis Bacon are widely considered to be the most important British artists of the 20th Century.”Lucien Freud was born in Berlin, Germany in 1922 to Ernst and Lucie. Lucien is the grandson of renowned psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, who founded the Psychoanalytic School of Psychology. In 1933, Lucien’s family moved to England. He studied at the Central School of Art in London, East Anglican School of Painting and Drawing and Goldsmiths College at the University of London. Early in his carrier, Freud was associated with the surrealist movement but in the 1950’s turned to portraits, many of them nudes as he tried to capture a subjects history and sensuality in his brushstrokes. In May of 2008 his nude portrait of friend and model Sue Tilley titled Benefits Supervisor Sleeping sold at Christie’s for $33.6 million and set the record for a living artist.
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