Lucian Freud

One of the Leopard's favorite painters who lived in my lifetime is the polarizing British painter Lucian Freud. For me, he is the quintessential artist, whose work developed over time passing through many periods of development until he found his most famous and recognizable style and subjugation - pulpy, thickly painted large oils of nudes in provocative poses, both and male and female.  What makes these works so striking is their startling honesty. The pallid fleshiness of his models denies idealism. This is what a human body of a certain age looks like, and there is much beauty in his depictions but no interest in what passes for conventional beauty, at least of the commercial sense.
Evidence of the inner working of Freud's mind are his landscapes which are just as sensuous but also depicts nature not in idealized light or perfect conditions but also in all its ugly beauty.

By all accounts, the painter, who was the nephew of Sigmund Freud, was a scoundrel, often sexually dominating his models and was,  by some reports, cruel and arrogant. Yet, the the indelicate master's masculine forcefulness,  seen in his blunt but wonderfully precise paint strokes may, in the end,  be exactly what captivates the viewer: his work captures you in its grip and dares you to look away.