SLEEPING GIANT | SUE TILLEY, BY LUCIAN FREUD
Woman with an Arm Tattoo, 1996, etching, courtesy of Austin/DesmondIn a recent interview with ROSA Magazine (Review of Sussex Arts), Sue Tilley, one of Lucian Freud’s regular sitters, called the artist “a monster, but a humorous monster”.
We can only imagine his reaction when one day (in 1996) Tilley, the subject of his famous ‘Benefits Advisor’ series of oil paintings, turned up to a session at his studio with a newly acquired suntan, strictly against the rules.
This would have been a sitting for the painting Sleeping by the Lion Carpet, painted that year.
Instead of continuing his painting of her, Freud (presumably once he had calmed down) produced this etching, entitled Woman with an Arm Tattoo.
The tattoo doesn’t appear on any of Freud’s paintings of Tilley. The artist generally airbrushed tattoos out of his portraits, believing them to be a distraction from the main image (they are, after all, designed to catch the eye).
Tilley, known for her love of Soho nightlife (she was good friends with Leigh Bowery) used to turn up for sittings at first light. In this case she appears to have fallen asleep, giving the artist the opportunity to sketch the folds in her skin (though she often feigned sleep for his portraits).
‘It is a classic example of his fascination with flesh, the imperfections a representation of the human condition,’ according to Austin/Desmond Fine Art, who include the etching – one of a series of 40 – in their latest exhibition Public Figure: Painting, Drawing and Photography.
The show, on until February 23, also includes works by Eileen Agar, Vanessa Beecroft, Rafael Canogar, John Craxton, Lucien Freud, Barbara Hepworth, Roger Hilton, David Hockney, Harry Holland, David Jones, RB Kitaj, Jürgen Klauke, Katlin Ladik, Wyndham Lewis, Alexander Massouras, John Melville, Cedric Morris, CRW Nevinson, Richard Pettibone, Keith Vaughan and Christopher Wood.
“He knew he was a monster, which always makes it better,” continued Tilley, in the same interview. “I’m attracted to monsters, anyway.” Freud’s paintings of Tilley have sold for many millions of pounds, though little of that money filtered down to his model and muse, who was paid a small daily fee for the sittings. She was picked out by him, she once told The Guardian, because she was considered good value for money: “He got a lot of flesh.”
Public Figure: Painting, Drawing and Photography, Austin Desmond, until February 23, 2023