Rare Freud drawings to sell at a premium

 
10 April 2012

A rare collection of drawings by Lucian Freud goes on show in London tomorrow among highlights of Sotheby's forthcoming Impressionist and modern art sales.

It is being sold by a private collector who may extract a premium for them amid new-found interest in Freud's drawings.

Several works on paper made many multiples of pre-sale estimates last year - even before Freud's death in July, aged 88.

Oliver Barker, Sotheby's deputy chairman in Europe, said the collection had been made over some years and was impressive in its "encyclopaedic" range of dates and subject matter - from a horse's head to a reclining nude used as the poster for Freud's Hayward Gallery retrospective in 1974.

The earliest of the five drawings to be sold on February 15 date from the start of Freud's career when he was a student.

Cacti and Stuffed Bird, produced in 1943, the year before Freud's first commercial show, showed his "incredible technical ability on paper" even when he was in his early twenties, said Mr Barker.

The most recent was a portrait of Lord Goodman, made from life in 1985.

Mr Barker said it made sense to sell now, with the National Portrait Gallery soon to open an exhibition of Freud's portraits and the commercial Blain/Southern gallery to mount a dedicated drawings show. Estimates are £100,000 to £600,000.

He added: "These are very much the finished article, which is why we think they're so interesting. They're not preparatory drawings for paintings. They are master works on paper."

Other works unveiled today for the sales over the next fortnight include a mammoth work by Joan Miró called Peinture, with an upper estimate of £10 million.

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