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The Painter's Mother - Signed Print by Lucian Freud 1982 - MyArtBroker

The Painter's Mother
Signed Print

Lucian Freud

Price data unavailable

AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.

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Medium: Etching

Edition size: 25

Year: 1982

Size: H 27cm x W 22cm

Signed: Yes

Format: Signed Print

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The value of Lucian Freud’s The Painter's Mother, a signed etching from 1982, is estimated to be worth between £6,000 and £9,000. This work has an impressive auction history, having been sold 14 times at since its initial sale in November 2010. The average annual growth rate of this artwork is 5% and over the past five years, the hammer price has varied from £4,743 in September 2017 to £8,026 in July 2021. The edition size of this piece is limited to 25.

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Auction Results

Auction DateAuction HouseLocation
Hammer Price
Return to Seller
Buyer Paid
July 2020Phillips New York United States
September 2019Sotheby's London United Kingdom
March 2015Sotheby's London United Kingdom
September 2011Sotheby's London United Kingdom
November 2010Bonhams New Bond Street United Kingdom

Meaning & Analysis

Freud's mother, Lucie Freud, was one of the artist's most avid sitters throughout his artistic career. She allegedly sat for her son no fewer than a thousand times over a decade, committing hundreds of hours to her son's observation of her portrait. After the death of Lucian's father, Ernst Freud, Lucie suffered from depression, and even attempted to take her own life. Perhaps as a way to deal with her grief, Lucie sat for Lucian more than ever in the period between 1972-84, with Lucian producing 18 portraits of her. The Painter's Mother is therefore not only Freud's tender representation of his ageing mother, but captures an experience between mother and son as they both mourned their loved one.

In most of his representations of his mother, Lucie is rarely looking directly at the viewer - or Freud - and usually gazes out of the frame completely. The Painter's Mother is a rare instance in which Lucie's gaze meets face to face with the viewer's. Her gaze seems to penetrate the two-dimensional surface of the print, and betrays her grief-stricken state. The intensity with which Freud depicted his mother here is the result of hours of lengthy sittings. We get the impression that the time Lucie spent sitting for this portrait, among many others, was time also spent navigating her grief with her beloved son.

  • Famed for his representations of the human form, Lucian Freud is one of the 20th Century's most celebrated artists. The grandson of psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud, the artist confronts the psychological depth and bare complexities of the human body. From his early works to his celebrated nudes and portraits, Freud's canvases resonate with an almost tactile intensity, capturing the essence of his subjects with unwavering honesty. Freud painted only himself, close friends, and family, which floods his work with an intimacy that is felt by the viewer. His pursuit of honesty through portraiture shaped the trajectory of figurative art in the 20th century.

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