Man Smoking 1987

This painting, Man Smoking, was made by Lucian Freud, but the date is unknown. I’m seeing a figure wreathed in smoke, rendered with such meaty, loaded brushstrokes. I imagine Freud, eyeballing his sitter, trying to get the measure of him. I see him mixing up these improbable pinks and fleshy browns, applying them wet into wet, building up this face like a landscape. Freud’s known for the way he captured the raw physicality of the human form. Here, every crease and wrinkle is mapped out with an almost brutal honesty. Thick paint, dragged across the surface, it's like he’s trying to get under the sitter’s skin. That mouth, pursed around the pipe stem, feels so loaded. Maybe it's a nod to the painter's painter, Frans Hals. It reminds us that artists are in an ongoing conversation. Freud’s paintings remind me that painting isn't just about surfaces, it's about plumbing the depths.