Lucian Freud was born in Berlin but moved with his family to London in 1933. He briefly studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London in 1939 and, in the same year, attended Cedric Morris’ East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing. He also attended Goldsmiths’ University for one year from 1942.

Freud formed part of a group of artists later named “The School of London” by the American artist Ronald Kitaj. This was a loose collection of artists working in London in the figurative style. Although his earlier paintings are often associated with Surrealism, from the 1950s he began to work in portraiture to the complete exclusion of everything else. The subjects of his paintings were often people in his life such as friends, family, lovers and children. He is widely considered the finest British artist of his time.