Naked Portrait 1981

Lucian Freud made this painting of a reclining nude in oils, we don't know exactly when. You can see the marks on the skin like a topography. Think about the artist, Freud, standing there, again and again, observing, mixing paint, and applying it to the canvas, trying to get it right, and maybe not worrying about getting it right. I imagine he was thinking about the materiality of paint itself, how the thick impasto could mimic the texture of skin, the weight of flesh. See how the brushstrokes build up the form, how the colors blend and shift to create a sense of depth and volume. He was deeply involved in a conversation with artists like Rembrandt or Courbet, who also explored the human form with such unflinching honesty. The way the light catches the folds of skin, the subtle shifts in color, all speak to the power of painting as a form of embodied expression. It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meanings.