One of the notable pockets of depth in the UBS Art Collection is a group of fifty-four works by acclaimed artist Lucian Freud.
Freud is often compared to the great seventeenth-century master Rembrandt. His art is characterized by a realistic and often crude approach to the human body. The thick paint is applied with an expressionistic brushwork. Freud takes particular care in meticulously rendering the play of light and the creases and wrinkles of the different materials, but in particular of his sitters’ skin. It is in the early 1960s that Lucian Freud establishes his unique style. The flesh becomes variably colored, the viewpoint is high and commanding and the scale larger-than-life. Depicting mostly people he knew well, he was an extremely slow painter, which required a long-lasting commitment from the subject.
‘Double Portrait’, 1988-90, depicts one of Freud’s regular sitters with the Freud family pet, Pluto the dog. There are small signs that indicate the many hours of stillness required when posing for Freud. The tension between the two subjects as well as the artist as observer is tangible – the sitter is in a rather awkward and uncomfortable pose, her right hand applying a little pressure to keep Pluto still, while the position of Pluto’s paws implies that he might attempt to flee at any moment. Freud’s penetrating gaze, nearly violating his sitter’s intimacy in its unadorned approach, is both fascinating and disturbing.
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