Room 6 Standing by the Rags 1988-9 The sitter for this painting was the painter, Sophie de Stempel. She is shown in an awkward pose, half lying, half standing, with one arm raised, propped against the rags on which Freud wiped his brushes and palette knives. They accumulated in his studio, and Freud chose to use them as a background for several paintings, including this and Lying by the Rags, also shown in room 6. De Stempel was not a professional model; Freud has always preferred to work from friends or members of his family, rather than models; as he explained in an interview recorded for the BBC in 1988, experienced models would have 'an idea about posing in itself which is exactly what I'm trying not to do. I want them to be themselves'.