Room 6 Leigh Bowery (Seated) 1990 Leigh Bowery, notorious for the outrageous costumes he wore for his performances on the club scene was, unusually for Freud, an experienced model. Bowery sat for Freud over the course of two years, as often as five days a week. 'The bonus is the quietness', he said of this experience. 'You get a different sense of yourself. It's nice to have that level of attention. And a tension.' By this stage, Freud had started enlarging his paintings as they developed, gaining room to work but also altering the proportions. This one grew more than most: Freud added strips to the side and about a third as much again to the bottom. Bowery is particularly naked, having not only removed all traces of his outrageous costumes, but also all the hair from his body, which he shaved before sitting to Freud. The painter found Bowery's skin curiously translucent, 'Like being able to see underneath the carpet'. A photograph of Freud working on this painting is on display in room 18 of Tate Britain, in an exhibition of photographs by Bruce Bernard.