Girl in Striped Nightshirt 1985

Lucian Freud made this small oil on canvas, Girl in Striped Nightshirt, to capture an intimate moment. Look at that face. Freud wasn’t afraid to show us every little detail, every shadow and line, making the painting feel so immediate. The surface of the painting is worked, each brushstroke deliberate. You can see the physicality of the paint. Thick in some areas, thin in others, he really worked the surface to describe the form. Zoom in on the hand, slightly clenched, vulnerable against the ochre pillow. The colours are muted, but there's a liveliness there. Pink, red, and brown mix in the skin tones. Freud's unflinching eye reminds me of Alice Neel, another painter who wasn't afraid to show the grit and reality of the human form. With Freud, as with Neel, it’s never just about appearances; it's about digging deeper, about the messy, complicated truth of being alive.