Lucian Freud

Grandson of Sigmund Freud, he was born in Berlin and moved to England aged ten in 1933. He studied at the Central School of Art and the East Anglian School of Painting (1939-42) under Cedric Morris. His first solo exhibition was at the Lefevre gallery, London in 1944. In 1951 he won the Arts Council prize at the Festival of Britain and in 1954 exhibited at the Venice Biennale. He achieved recognition as one of Britain's foremost figurative painters, celebrated for his clinically raw and intensely observed portraits and nude studies. Freud believed his presence was implicit in every one of his paintings, stating 'all my work is autobiography'. A major retrospective was held at the National Portrait Gallery in 2012.

Text © National Portrait Gallery, London