Art Painting "Ria, Naked Portrait" sold at auction for 16.6 million euros
Lucian Freud's "Ria, Naked Portrait" has been sold at auction for 16.6 million euros. "It was the first time it had been on the market, which is really exciting," Anna Touzin from London auction house Christie's told the AFP news agency.
09.10.2024, 05:38
10.10.2024, 06:47
SDA
The nude by the British painter, who died in 2011, is a "late masterpiece", the auctioneer added. Freud worked on the painting for 16 months, from 2006 to 2007. Since its completion, it has been in the possession of a single collector.
The woman in the painting, Ria Kirby, modeled for the painter for up to five hours almost every day, Touzin said. "So this was a very long process, which shows the relationship Freud had with his models, the devotion they had to him and the devotion he had to them by painting them."
Grandson of Sigmund Freud
Freud is considered one of the best British portrait painters. The grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud is known for his nude paintings and self-portraits that show imperfect bodies. "He didn't want to portray an idealized view of bodies. He wanted to paint people as they are," said Touzin.
Freud's paintings fetch high prices on the art market. At the auction on Wednesday, his work "Head of a Woman" was sold for over four and a half million euros. In 2022, his work "Large Interior, W11" achieved a record price of 76.6 million euros. In 2015, the nude "Benefits Supervisor Resting" went under the hammer for over 56 million dollars.
