Interior in Paddington 1951 © The Artist Oil on canvas, 152.4 x 114.3 Walker Art Gallery, National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside Audio Clip

Room 1  Interior in Paddington Freud won a prize for this painting, commissioned for the Arts Council's exhibition Sixty Paintings for 51, as part of the Festival of Britain. The canvas, unusually large for the post war period when canvas was still in short supply, was provided by the Arts Council. The painting itself conveys a sense of the anxiety and want associated with the last years of rationing. A sort of double portrait, it shows Harry Diamond, an East-Ender who at the time was working as a stage-hand, standing by a potted plant. Diamond complained bitterly while posing, but Freud was stimulated by his resentful aggressiveness: 'He said I made his legs too short: the whole thing was that his legs were too short. He was aggressive as he had a bad time being brought up in the East End and being persecuted.' The red carpet was bought especially for the painting, from a junk shop, and Freud was particularly proud of the way he painted it. Through the window is the Grand Union Canal and the area of London known at Little Venice. Despite its clear avoidance of the celebratory tones of the Festival of Britain, the painting was one of five awarded a £500 purchase prize.