Annabel Sleeping 1988

Lucian Freud made this painting, Annabel Sleeping, with oil on canvas, and there's no date given. It’s like he grabbed a moment out of real life and slapped it onto the canvas. Look at the paint! It’s thick, right? Almost sculptural. You can practically feel the weight of Annabel’s body pressing into the bed. And the colors, those muted blues and fleshy tones, they’re so honest, so un-romantic. Freud’s not trying to pretty things up, he's showing us the real deal. I’m drawn to the way he’s painted Annabel’s feet. They’re all knobbly and awkward, but so full of life. Each toe seems to have its own story to tell. I’m reminded of Chaim Soutine, in how he used paint to dig deep beneath the surface. With Freud, like Soutine, it's like he's saying that beauty isn’t always about perfection, it’s about truth, even if that truth is a little bit ugly.