Bella and Esther 1988

Lucian Freud painted ‘Bella and Esther’ using oil on canvas, and you can almost feel his presence there in the studio, can’t you? Those brushstrokes are so loaded, like he’s really digging into the surface, trying to understand the weight and form of everything he saw. I can imagine him circling around his subjects, scrutinizing every detail, every fold of fabric, every contour of skin. It’s clear he wanted to capture something more than just their likenesses. You look at those faces, and you can sense the layers of history, emotion, and vulnerability etched into their features. He’s always in conversation with the Old Masters, isn’t he? There’s a feeling of intimacy and psychological tension, like you’re getting a glimpse into their inner worlds. And like so many artists, he wasn’t just painting what he saw, but also what he felt. It’s this emotional honesty that I think makes his work so compelling.