Q. The painter Lucian Freud was said to have admired the work of Titian, Cardin and Courbet and to have disliked da Vinci, Raphael and Vermeer. Take a look at the top painting (Courbet), the middle painting (Freud) and the bottom painting (da Vinci). On what do you think Freud based his preference?

A.  According to the writer Martin Gayford, Freud liked the way they painted flesh, faces and bodies and disliked “idealized” versions of the human form. Both Courbet and Freud’s nudes  are “fleshy” and look like real women as compared to da Vinci’s nude which is perfectly proportioned (more divine really than human). Part of Freud’s genius as a painter is the natural, expressive, and realistic way he painted the nude body. It would follow that he admired other painters who did the same.

Lucian Freud also happened to paint dogs with the same kind of expressive realism. He treated animal and human form similarly.

The paintings below are by the well-known contemporary figurative painters Eric Fischl, John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage. Each is provocative in their treatment of the female form and each has distorted their forms for various reasons. What body types are they referencing – models, athletes, porn stars, renaissance goddesses, or nymphs? How do you think these references are related to meaning? What positions are these bodies in – natural or unnatural? What do you think each is communicating through their depiction of the female nude?