Head on a pillow

Between 1946 and 1948 Freud made six etchings before abandoning the medium altogether for more than three decades. This print dates from 1982, the very year that Freud took the medium up again. The etchings from this time are characteristically small in scale and represent portrait heads, often unusually cropped.

The stimulus behind Freud's resumption of etching was the publication of Lawrence Gowing's monograph of the artist. Freud was told by the book's publisher, Thames and Hudson, that it would not be economically viable unless it included a deluxe edition of 100, each with an original etching by him.