Sotheby’s will offer a rediscovered drawing by Lucien Freud during its Modern & Post-War British Art Evening Sale in London on November 17.
Titled “Girl and Self Portrait,” the drawing is the artist’s only known self-portrait featuring Kitty Garman, his first wife and muse.
Executed in pen and ink and heightened with coloured crayon, the arresting composition “pulsates with the emotional intensity between the artist and model/lover,” according to Sotheby’s
“Girl and Self Portrait” was originally intended to illustrate a reproduction of the book “Flyda of the Seas: a Fairy Tale for Grown Ups” by Princess Marie Bonaparte, a disciple and patron of Sigmund Freud. But Freud’s illustrations did not end up being included in the edition.
Between 1947 and 1948 the drawing was gifted by Freud to the second wife of George Orwell, the late Sonia Brownell (1918-1980), in whose possession it remained.
It was only lent once for exhibition for Freud’s show at the London Gallery in 1948, shortly after it was gifted to Brownell, and now comes to the market for the first time with an estimate of £600,000-800,000.
For more information visit the Sotheby’s website here.
