Solicitor's Head
Lucian Freud
British, born Germany. 1922–2011
2003
Lucian Freud’s Solicitor’s Head is an etching in which the artist seeks to record a sitter’s physical presence and vulnerability through raw, tactile mark-making.
A confrontingly close, slightly tilted view makes the face loom forward, while dense, directional cross-hatching and ragged lines carve swollen features, tousled hair, and a slack mouth that read as intensely bodily and unvarnished.
Made late in Freud’s career, the print uses etching’s expressive potential to push portraiture toward uncompromising corporeality and psychological truth, reaffirming figurative intensity in contemporary art.
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
plate: 14 7/16 x 10 15/16" (36.7 x 27.8 cm); sheet: 23 1/4 x 19" (59.1 x 48.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Fractional and promised gift of Anna Marie and Robert F. Shapiro in celebration of the Museum's 75th anniversary
Accession
420.2004
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
