Lucian Freud – Expensive and Fleshy

Lucian Freud, grandson of the founder of psycho-analysis, Sigmund Freud, passed away on 20 July 2011.His powerful body of work, adored by some, hated by others, is nevertheless immortal and the world’s major museums and top collectors will continue to keep it alive.
Attracting fierce bidding at auctions, in 2008 Lucian FREUD became the world’s most expensive living artist.

His early work
His first works in the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s were made with careful style, very much inspired by Flemish techniques and polished brushstrokes. They were a far cry from the thick texture and detached style for which the artist is best known today. If we compare for example the two portraits of his friend Francis BACON painted within four years of each other, we see that the one painted in 1952 is minutely finished in a smooth technique. This rare work was part of the Tate Britain’s collection before it was stolen from an exhibition in Berlin in 1988. The second portrait dated 1956-1957 abandons the desire for perfection and moves distinctly towards the desire for reflection (reflection on the body, reflection on oneself via the other). The flesh, more flabby and more earthly, is painted with broader strokes and the head is unfinished. The portrait sold at Christie’s on 19 October 2008 in London just as the crisis was kicking into the art market. Indeed, at that sale, Christie’s bought in 58% of the lots. However the unfinished Freud portrait reached £4.8m (c. $8.3m) despite being only 35.5 cm centimetres high (before attacking large format works of the entire body, Lucian Freud used to paint small oil paintings of 10 to 30 centimetres which today do not sell for less than $180,000). The multi-million result of the portrait of Bacon in 2008 was supported by two factors: on the one hand, the meeting of two giants of art in the same painting, and on the other, the explosion of Freud’s price index between 2002 and 2008, year in which at 86, he became the “world’s most expensive living artist”. This title was partly due to the acquisition by the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s of Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping (1995) for the exceptional price of $30m on 13 May 2008 at Christie’s).

One of the world’s most appreciated artists
The record year of 2008 was therefore a peak for Lucian Freud in terms of prices. His index had in fact risen +235% over the previous decade.
In fact the market for Freud’s work has become so enthusiastic that the dimension of the work on offer no longer seems a value criterion. For example, recently (10 February 2011 at Sotheby’s in London) we saw a moving self-portrait by the artist (a small oil on cardboard measuring 11.5 x 8.8 cm and dated 1952) fetch £2.9m ($4.6m). In 1992 the same work was offered for sale at the same auction house and fetched just £80,000 roughly $150,000.
The highest capital gain so far generated by a Freud painting was hammered in 2008 when his Naked Portrait with Reflection, a large female nude, sold for $16m more than its previous auction price 10 years earlier (USD 2.55m on 9 December 1998 at Sotheby’s in London, followed by GBP10.5m at Christie’s in London – 30 June 2008). Thus, on occasion, his prices flirted with those of his friend and elder Francis Bacon whose record stands at USD 77m for Triptych (14 May 2008, Sotheby’s, New York).
The inspired collectors who acquired Freud’s work in the 80s and 90s almost certainly did not anticipate that level of value accretion.

Apart from the passion triggered by the sale of the small portrait in February 2011 at Sotheby’s, on 28 and 29 June 2011, Christie’s sold a selection of works from Kay Saatchi’s collection (ex-wife of Charles Saatchi). Among these were five exceptional works on paper by Lucian Freud that together constitute an interesting milestone in the evolution of his work. Christie’s high estimate for the ensemble was £1.15m… the result was twice that: all five exceeded their estimates generating a total of £2.02m. Lucian Freud’s work had indeed become legendary by the time of his death.