The exhibition begins with a nine-year-old Freud's coloured-pencil-on-paper of birds taking flight from a tree and continues, through some more fascinating juvenilia of boys being evacuated in WWII, to a tantalisingly unfinished etching of 2011. The early drawings show an easy assurance with line and detail, when any scrap of paper was seized upon and any subject Hastily drawn animals, interiors and landscapes were clearly as important to the young Freud as slowly aggregated portrait paintings would be for the mature artist. Arguably, drawing was the basis on which all of Freud's anatomical edifices were built; it was merely the first layer to be obliterated by his patient impasto. (OW)
Entry to the Hill Street show is by timed ticket; book online.
To view our gallery 'Lucian Freud: A Career in Pictures' go to
www.timeout.com/lucianfreud