In his highly acclaimed text, Robert Hughes points out that the reality pursued in Freud's paintings goes far beyond naturalism. It is both startling and disconcerting, producing some of the most powerful and moving visual images to have appeared in the last thirty years.

Freud—once dubbed "the Ingres of existentialism"—has almost single-handedly redefined the figurative painting of our time. No other living artist possesses his ability to paint the texture and thinness of skin over flesh, and his distinctive portraits have a haunting quality that makes them impossible to forget.

This volume, with over one hundred superb reproductions of his greatest paintings, pays tribute to one of the most original and accomplished artists of the twentieth century.