Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild ('Man in a Chair')

© The Lucian Freud Archive / Bridgeman Images

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Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild ('Man in a Chair')

by Lucian Freud
oil on canvas, 1989
45 in. x 31 3/8 in. (1143 mm x 797 mm)
Lent by a private collection, 1991
Primary Collection
NPG L201

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Lucian Freud (1922-2011), Artist. Artist or producer of 6 portraits, Sitter in 65 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Man in a Chair is one of several paintings across the artist's oeuvre that show men in suits sitting in chairs. The thicker handling of the paint on the face shows Freud's developing interest in paint texture, which peaked in his later works.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Howgate, Sarah (introduction) Auping, Michael (appreciation) Richardson, John (appreciation), Lucian Freud: Portraits, 2012 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 9 February to 28 May 2012), p. 135

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1989back to top

Current affairs

96 people are crushed to death at the Hillsborough football stadium in Sheffield. The accident took place when Liverpool fans were all let into the stadium at once. Incoming crowds crushed people against a fence used to prevent pitch-invasions. Following the Taylor Report into the incident standing terraces and fences between fans and pitch were banned.

Art and science

Following the publication of Anglo-Indian writer Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses in 1988, the leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, announces that the book is 'blasphemous against Islam' and places a fatwah (death sentence) on Rushdie, who is forced into hiding for several years.

International

The Berlin Wall is dismantled, reunifying East and West Germany and symbolising the end of the Cold War. Following a decision to allow East Berliners to cross the border with valid visas, crowds swarmed the border crossings. Guards soon gave up trying to stop them, and the physical dismantlement of the wall soon began.
Approximately 2,000 Chinese demonstrators are massacred in Tiananmen Square while protesting against the government.

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