Lucian Freud's Self-Portraits To Go On View Together At London's Royal Academy Of Arts

"Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits" is the first retrospective to focus on the late British artist's interest in self-portraiture.

The exhibition brings together more than 50 self-portraits by Freud that were executed over almost seven decades, including paintings, drawings and etchings.

Most pieces come from private collections across the world, some of which have not been seen in public for years.

As The New York Times pointed out, the presentation was first proposed to the Royal Academy of Arts by Freud's longtime studio assistant David Dawson, who also modelled for the artist on several occasions.

"Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits" is organised in a loose chronology to highlight Freud's wide-ranging exploration of self-portraiture.

Above Lucian Freud, 'Reflection (Self-portrait)' (1985) © Image Courtesy of the Royal Academy of Arts, London

Above Lucian Freud, 'Man with a Feather' (1943) © Image Courtesy of the Royal Academy of Arts, London

Freud often represented himself partially in his early works as testifies "Still-life with Green Lemon," in which his side profile appears from behind a wall.

Further examples of this playfulness in the presentation of his self-image is seen in "Flora with Blue Toe Nails," where the artist's shadow is cast on the model's bed.

Freud's self-portraits were all pictures of reflections in mirrors, and not of photographs -- a fact so important for the artist that he started to add the word "reflection" to the title of his works in the 1960s.

Above Lucian Freud, 'Reflection with Two Children (Self-portrait)' (1965) © Image Courtesy of the Royal Academy of Arts, London

Among them are "Reflection with Two Children (Self-Portrait)" in which the towering figure of Freud was painted by putting a mirror on the floor.

A highlight of the exhibition at the Royal Academy is "Painter Working, Reflection," which critics and art historians consider one of Freud's greatest self-portraits.

This nude, completed shortly after he turned 70, shows the artist wearing nothing but his unlaced studio boots as he proudly brandishes his palette knife.

"Painter Working, Reflection" also marks Freud's only full-figure naked self-portrait, although the artist seemed to be undressed in several of his previous pictures of himself.

"Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits" will be on view from October 27 through January 26, 2020 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

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LUCIAN FREUD SELF-PORTRAITS

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Lucian Freud's Self-Portraits To Go On View Together At London's Royal Academy Of Arts