print
- Museum number
- 2004,0602.66
- Title
- Object: Woman on a Bed
- Description
-
Reclining female nude (Louise Liddell, Freud's framer and a regular sitter) seen from above, left arm covering her face and hands touching. 1991-2
Etching with plate tone on Somerset Satin White paper
- Production date
- 1991-1992
- Dimensions
-
Height: 238 millimetres (plate)
-
Height: 435 millimetres (sheet)
-
Width: 203 millimetres
-
Width: 387 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Edition of 30 plus 10 Artist's Proofs, proofed and printed by Marc Balakjian at Studio Prints, London, and published by Matthew Marks Gallery (New York) and James Kirkman (London). A related painting of 1992 is entitled 'Woman Holding Her Thumb', and includes the background of crumpled sheets with a wider perspective. The sitter is Louise Liddell, Freud's picture framer. She was interviewed about the experience by Stuart Jeffries in The Guardian on 10/6/02; a copy is held in the artist's file.
Text from 'Living with art: The Alexander Walker collection' (British Museum Press, 2020):
An image of Louise Liddell, Freud’s long-term picture framer, reclining naked on a bed. The print relates to a painting from 1992 called 'Woman Holding Her Thumb' for which Liddell posed over several evenings a week for six months. She described the experience as ‘a hellish commitment. But at the same time … utterly fascinating’ (Stuart Jeffries, ‘Talent in the Raw’, Guardian, 10 June 2002, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2002/jun/10/artsfeatures.gender [accessed 26 February 2019]). The small scale of the etching contrasts sharply with the painting, which provides a wider view and measures 1240 x 1205 mm. The etching was printed by Marc Balakjian at Studio Prints, London and co-published in an edition of thirty by James Kirkman in London and the Matthew Marks Gallery in New York. Freud gave Liddell an impression of the etching in lieu of payment.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2004-2005 June-Jan, BM, Matisse to Freud: The Alexander Walker Bequest
2014 Oct 14 - 3 Feb 2020, London, BM, G2, 'Collecting the World'
- Acquisition date
- 2004
- Acquisition notes
- Purchased by Alexander Walker from Marlborough Graphics, London on 12/10/99 for £5,551.88.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2004,0602.66
