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    Lucian Freud (British, b. Germany, 1922)
    Naked Man, Back View, 1991–92
    Oil on canvas; 72 1/4 x 54 1/8 in. (183.5 x 137.5 cm)
    The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1993 (1993.71)

    Curator Comment

    For more than half a century, Freud has concentrated on depicting the human face and figure in paintings, drawings, and etchings. Earlier examples are smaller in scale and crafted in a distinctive, meticulous style with extreme precision. Freud's major compositions of the last thirty years are considerably larger, with heavily worked and impastoed surfaces. The model for this picture, Leigh Bowery (Australian, 1961–1994), was a performance artist in London.

    Anne L. Strauss, associate curator, Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art

    Provenance

    The artist; [Acquavella Contemporary Art, Inc., New York].

    Bibliography

    Catherine Lampert, Lucian Freud: Recent Work (London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1993), cat. no. 85; William S. Lieberman, "Naked Man, Back View," Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 1992–1993. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 51, no. 2 (Fall 1993): 64; Bruce Bernard and Derek Birdsall, eds., Lucian Freud (New York: Random House, 1996), no. 258.

    Related Links

    Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

    Listen to a conversation between Philippe de Montebello and curator Sabine Rewald about this work of art.