Annabel and Rattler 1998

Lucian Freud made "Annabel and Rattler" with oil on canvas, though the exact date is unknown. The palette is restrained, almost monochromatic, which emphasizes the process, the act of seeing, and then the act of painting. The physicality of the medium is so evident. You can almost smell the linseed oil. Look how Freud builds up the paint on the woman's skin. It's thick, fleshy, and unforgiving. Every lump and bump is recorded with almost brutal honesty. And then there’s the dog, Rattler, painted with such loose, gestural strokes that he seems to dissolve into the bed. But this contrast doesn't divide the painting, it enlivens it. Freud shares this interest in painting as a type of raw seeing, with someone like Alice Neel, who stripped away pretense in favor of emotional truth. Art is an ongoing conversation, and its beauty is in its ability to hold multiple, often contradictory, interpretations.