A sumptuous single-volume edition of Phaidon's acclaimed overview of one of the greatest painters of our time. 

Larger-than-life British artist Lucian Freud enjoyed a career lasting over seven decades. He worked almost until the day he died, when he left a portrait of friend and studio assistant David Dawson unfinished. 

Now available for the first time in one elegantly combined edition, this acclaimed celebration of Freud's work from the 1930s to his death in 2011 includes hundreds of paintings, drawings, sketches, and etchings - even personal photographs and illustrated private letters. 

A comprehensive overview of his life and work in one luxurious volume, this book is a gorgeous addition to the shelves of art lovers everywhere. Created in collaboration with the Lucian Freud Archive and David Dawson, Director of the Archive, and edited by Mark Holborn. 

Martin Gayford is a writer and art critic for The Spectator magazine. He sat for a portrait by Freud, an experience recounted in Man with a Blue Scarf (2010). 

Painter David Dawson is represented by Marlborough Fine Art, London. Freud's assistant from 1991 until his death, he was a frequent model for his paintings. 

Mark Holborn is an editor, designer, and writer who has worked with many leading artists over the last 30 years. 

About the artist

Lucian Michael Freud (1922 – 2011) was a British painter and draftsman, and is considered one of the foremost 20th-century portraitists. Although his early work contained surrealist elements, he is best known for his figurative paintings more heavily influenced by realism and intense observation. Most of his models were friends and family members, and this relationship between artist and model, often unsettling or uncomfortable, is a central theme to his work. His reputation for demanding schedules for these models was well established, with one painting taking approximately 2,400 hours to complete and requiring the model to attend all but four evenings of that time.