Lucian Freud

Intro | Room Guide | Chronology | Technique

 Room 8 

Room 8 takes us into the 1990s, when Freud began painting a friend of Leigh Bowery's named Sue Tilley. She worked at an office of the Department of Health and Social Security, as emphasised in the title Benefits Supervisor Resting 1994. Sue's size led her to be nick-named 'Big Sue'; Freud admitted 'I have a predilection towards people of unusual or strange proportions'. Sue herself admitted she was nervous about the prospect of being painted by Freud: 'I used to think "Oh my goodness, what are people going to say?" But then I was so pleased to be painted by him that I didn't really mind.'

Although new sitters were introduced, Freud also continued to work from members of his family; his daughter Isobel ('Ib'), painted as a child in the 1960s (Large Interior, Paddington 1968-9, in Room 4) re-appears as a grown woman in Ib and her Husband 1992.