Painter Lucian Freud dies at 88 Realist painter Lucian Freud, one of Britain's most distinguished and highly regarded artists, has died at the age of 88.
New York dealer William Acquavella said Freud had died at his London home on Wednesday after an illness.
Freud, a grandson of the psycho-analyst Sigmund Freud, was born in Berlin in 1922 and came to Britain with his family in 1933, when he was 10.
Freud was particularly known for his paintings of nudes.
His works have been increasingly sought after at recent auctions and his portrayal of an overweight nude woman sleeping on a couch sold in 2008 for $33.6m (£20.6m) - a world record for a work by a living artist.
'Lived to paint'Mr Acquavella described Freud "as one of the great painters of the 20th Century"."In company he was exciting, humble, warm and witty. He lived to paint and painted until the day he died, far removed from the noise of the art world."
Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate gallery, said: "The vitality of [Freud's] nudes, the intensity of the still life paintings and the presence of his portraits of family and friends guarantee Lucian Freud a unique place in the pantheon of late 20th Century art.
"His early paintings redefined British art and his later works stand comparison with the great figurative painters of any period."
The son of an architect and older brother of broadcaster Clement Freud, he went to art school in London and then to a college in East Anglia.
At first he confined himself to drawing, but when he was 17 had a self-portrait accepted for reproduction in the magazine, Horizon.
Freud was recognised early on and after a spell in the Merchant Navy in 1942, had his first one-man show in 1944, when he was 21.
After the war he went to France and Greece, and having taken up painting by then, returned to the UK in 1948 to teach for 10 years at the Slade School of Art.
Freud was a member of the Order of Merit, one of Britain's most prestigious chivalry honours presented to individuals by the Queen for great achievement in the fields of the arts, learning, literature and science.
The honour is restricted to 24 members at any one time, plus additional foreign recipients and past recipients include Florence Nightingale, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Edward Elgar and Mother Teresa.
BBC
