Large Interior W11 (after Watteau) 1983

Lucian Freud made Large Interior W11 (after Watteau) with oil on canvas at an unspecified date. Freud really digs into the nitty-gritty of painting. There's this kind of restless searching, a what-you-see-is-what-you-get vibe, where the paint is laid down pretty raw and direct. It's like he's just figuring it out as he goes, and we get to see the whole process, the struggle, the little imperfections that make it real. He’s trying to get at something true about these figures and their surroundings. Take a look at the way he renders the faces. They're not prettied up or idealized, they're just… there, with all their quirks and imperfections. There’s a bit of that painterly awkwardness, that searching for the right mark, and it reminds me a little of Watteau, who was interested in the melancholy of performance. It’s like a conversation across time about what it means to be seen, to be real, and to be human.