London's National Portrait Gallery To Feature Lucian Freud's Final Painting

Written by Victor Summerfield Monday, 21 May 2012 22:50

London - The final painting by artist Lucian Freud before his death in July will be going on show for the first time at London's National Portrait Gallery in February 2012. The painting, entitled "Portrait of the Hound 2011" depicts Freud's assistant David Dawson posing nude alongside his dog Eli. The painting is being hung as part of a show which will see more than 100 paintings and works on paper by Freud go on display. Currently being billed as "most ambitious exhibition of the artist's work for 10 years", the show will also feature some of Freud's earliest pieces, created in the '40s.Lucian Freud Portraits will open on 9 February and will run through 27 May, 2012.

The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in London, England, housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was the first portrait gallery in the world when it opened in 1856. Portraits of living figures were allowed from 1969. In addition to its permanent galleries of historical portraits, the National Portrait Gallery exhibits a rapidly changing collection of contemporary work, stages exhibitions of portrait art by individual artists and hosts the annual BP Portrait Prize competition.

One of its best-known images is the Chandos portrait, the most famous portrait of William Shakespeare although there is some uncertainty as to if the painting actually is of the playwright.
Not all of the portraits are exceptional artistically, although there are self-portraits by William Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds and other British artists of note. Some, such as the group portrait of the participants in the Somerset House Conference of 1604, are important historical documents in their own right.