John Deakin
1964
This intimate 1964 portrait by Lucian Freud captures fellow Soho habitué and photographer John Deakin with the unflinching psychological intensity that defines Freud's mature portraiture. The close-cropped composition and heavily worked impasto surface—built up in visible, sculptural brushstrokes of flesh tones ranging from warm ochres to cool mauves—render every crease and contour of Deakin's weathered face with almost brutal honesty. Set against a characteristically spare, pale background, the painting exemplifies Freud's commitment to radical realism and his ability to transform the human face into a topography of lived experience. As a portrait linking two towering figures of London's postwar bohemian milieu, this work holds significant art-historical resonance and represents a highly desirable example from a pivotal decade in Freud's career.
Spotted works by Lucian Freud
Artists in conversation
Francis Bacon
British · b. 1909
Bacon was a close friend and contemporary of Freud who shared his commitment to raw, psychologically charged figurative painting. Both artists pursued an unflinching examination of the human body that placed them at the centre of British figurative art.
Jenny Saville
British · b. 1970
Saville shares Freud's preoccupation with large scale, unidealized depictions of the nude human form rendered with thick impastoed paint. Her confrontational approach to flesh and physicality places her in direct dialogue with Freud's mature figurative style.
Egon Schiele
Austrian · b. 1890
Schiele's intensely psychological and erotically charged figure studies share Freud's refusal to flatter or idealize the human body. Both artists used line and surface to expose psychological states with an almost unbearable directness.
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