Thursday, May 15, 2008

The pleasures of the flesh

Speaking as someone who has rather more flesh than I'd like, I'm delighted to see this lifesize painting by Lucien Freud (grandson of Sigmund) has just become the highest value painting ever sold, going for a mere US$33.6 million to an undisclosed bidder. The blog heading is mine - the painting is actually called "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping" - the model was doing that job at the time.

I don't think a similar painting of, say, Kate Moss (substitute the name of any other stick-thin model/actress/celebrity here) would have the same impact, do you?

4 comments:

Sheila said...

That is quite an interesting painting. I don't think most artists today would like of painting a woman of a size other than the stick looking models. And I find them very skeletal. I love coming to your site. You keep me thinking.

Janet said...

hey, that's me!!!

sharon young said...

I have to say that whenever I've taken life classes, I've always preferred to draw the models with a more curvy figure, as I think they are more restful on the eye than an angular form, and I found them easier to draw.

Veronica said...

I'm feeling very trim, healthy and attractive now. Thanks Shirley! : )