Eli

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Of the three etchings of dogs completed by Lucian Freud, Eli is the largest in scale and is considered one of the artist's masterpieces in print. Eli has rarely been offered for sale at auction, only three times in fact. Most notably a proof from the Marc Balakjian collection was offered by Christie's in London in 2012: it sold for £145,250 ($228,201). When Freud died in 2011 he was at work on a painting of Eli, called Portrait of the Hound.

Freud's portraits of dogs, the others being of his own whippet, Pluto (1988) and Pluto, aged Twelve (2000), are amongst Freud's most tender renderings, the artist's hand entirely obeying his eye's intent to transfer his full affection for the animals to paper.

Eli

Lucian Freud

Artist: Lucian Freud (1922-2011)
Title: Eli
Medium: Etching
Date: 2002
Sheet: 30 ½ x 37 ¾ in : 77.5 x 96.0 cm (Somerset Textured White paper)
Edition: From the edition of 46, signed and numbered by the artist
Printer: Marc Balakjian at Studio Prints, London
Publisher: Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Exhibited: New York, Museum of Modern Art, Lucian Freud: The Painter's Etchings, 16 Dec 2007-10 Mar 2008 (another impression exhibited and illustrated p.123); New York, Acquavella Contemporary Art, Inc., Lucian Freud: Recent Paintings and Etchings, 28 April - 27 May 2004 (another impression exhibited and illustrated pl.7)
Literature: Feaver 79 & 330; Figura 93; Hartley (NGS/Fitzwilliam) 58; Smee 67
Reference: A21-40 / C15-51
Status: No longer available
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