Garden in Winter

Although the human subject was the central preoccupation of Lucian Freud - the son of architect Ernst Freud and grandson of Sigmund - the artist created many highly detailed nature studies, which he also considered portraits. In a 1988 interview, the artist spoke of his need to withdraw, on occasion, from the difficulty of working with human subjects: "Painting out the window, I think I've generally done it when my life's been very strained, when working on my own seemed easier for me."