Two etchings by Lucian Freud of his amply proportioned muse, Sue Tilley, sold for more than £100,000 at Phillips London today, 15 October, almost doubling their combined low estimates. One of the works, Woman Sleeping (1995), came about “entirely by accident”, Tilley recounts in the introduction to the catalogue.
Freud was half way through painting Sleeping by the Lion Carpet when Tilley visited the southeast of France where she caught the sun, much to Freud’s dismay. On her return to the artist’s studio two days later, a “harrumphing” Freud told Tilley: “I’m going have to do an etching while THAT fades away.”
The two works were among 32 etchings by Freud consigned by an anonymous US collector, 30 of which sold for a combined £1m. Other highlights included a rare 1996 self-portrait, which went for a record £86,500 (£60,000-£80,000), and a tender sketch from 2002 of Eli the whippet, a Christmas gift from Freud to his assistant and close friend David Dawson, which also fetched £86,500 (est £80,000-£120,000).
Cary Leibowitz, the co-director of editions for Phillips worldwide, said there had been a steady procession of people making “the Freud pilgrimage” over the past week. “Hundreds of people every day brought their good karma and genuine devotion,” he says.
