Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon Paintings: The eight most scandalous
The explosive synergy between Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud has made their unconventional 'bromance' one of the most critiqued of all twentieth-century relationships.
Innovative talents working in Post-War London, Bacon and Freud spearheaded a movement championing figurative representation when abstraction was the pervading fashion.
While their painterly style differs dramatically, their obsession with visceral, raw image-making that distorted the human form unites them as one in the popular imagination.
Ahead of the Freud and Bacon exhibition at Tate Britain, we round up the eight most controversial Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon paintings.
Friends, rivals, and finally enemies: it's Bacon vs Freud. Who wins?
With jutting hips, a protruding rib cage, and a bush of jet-black public hair, Naked Girl Asleep I is one of the most jarring of Freud's explicit nudes.
Working from life, Freud scrutinised his sitters with an unforgiving, penetrating gaze. He commanded his models to pose, sit and lie in discomfort for hours on end. While Freud's nudes challenge convention, they expose his exacting skill and artistic eye.
