TODAY, Lucian Freud is best known for his uncompromising portraits of nude sitters who sprawled on the tatty sofa in his studio. He moved to Kensington from Paddington in 1977 and, as a means of acclimatising himself, decided to paint Two Plants. This meticulous study of life and death harks back to Freud's early limpid works such as Interior in Paddington (1951), in which a tall raggedy yucca dominates the composition. His attention to detail also invokes historical comparison with the 16th-century Nature studies of Albrecht Dürer and the leafy Pre-Raphaelite backdrop to John Everett Millais's Ophelia.
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Tales as old as time
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