The art of Lucian Freud Pictures Lucian Freud's surreal "Girl With Roses" (1947-48). Freud (1922-2011), whom some critics call one of the greatest portrait painters of the 20th century, came into his more recognizable, more textural style after his friend and fellow painter Francis Bacon encouraged him to paint more freely. Freud began using a thicker brush, and started to focus more on the flesh. His greatest works were nudes - some slim, others corpulent. People (as Freud put it) "stripped of (their) costume." Credit: Courtesy Lucian Freud Archive