Lucian Freud

Over six decades he has redefined portraiture and the nude through works of extraordinary vitality and presence. His subjects are often friends, family, fellow painters, lovers and children. 'I paint people,' he has said, 'not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be.' Born in Berlin in 1922, Freud went to England with his family in 1933. Along with his friend, the painter Francis Bacon, he rose to prominence in London in the 1950s. He has lived and worked in the city ever since. Published to accompany the largest retrospective of Freud's work to date, which travels from Tate Britain in London to the Centro Cultural de la Fundació la Caixa in Barcelona and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, this lavishly illustrated book brings together key works from his entire career, including over 160 paintings, drawings and etchings, some not previously published. The book includes a wide-ranging essay by the writer and curator William Feaver; a contribution by Freud's friend, the painter Frank Auerback; previously unseen photographs belonging to Freud; a chronology and full bibliography, making it the most comprehensive book on the artist in print. It is designed in close collaboration with Freud, who designed the cover.