LONDON.- Ahead of a major exhibition in 2026, the National Portrait Gallery has today announced the acquisition of 12 new works from the estate of Lucian Freud, one of Britain’s greatest portrait artists. Among these are 8 etchings, including a trial proof, which are the first of their medium by Freud to enter the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection. A curated selection of these newly acquired works will be exhibited at the NPG from today as part of a free display that explores Freud’s working practice and dedication to portraiture. Archive research will also inform a major new 2026 exhibition, Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting (12 February – 3 May 2026), which will include some of these previously unseen materials.


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One of the newly acquired etchings, which depicts the artist’s daughter, Bella Freud, will feature in the new exhibition, the first of the National Portrait Gallery 2026 programme. Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting will explore the artist’s lifelong preoccupation with the human face and figure from the 1930s to the early twenty-first century, focusing on Freud’s mastery of drawing in all its forms – from pencil, pen, and ink to charcoal and etching. In addition, a carefully selected group of important paintings will reveal the dynamic dialogue between his practice on paper and on canvas. Opening on 12 February 2026, tickets will go on sale this autumn.


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Ahead of this, Bella in her Pluto T-Shirt (etching) and other new acquisitions – including an unsigned trial proof of the sitter, without face, and a preparatory sketch of the work – are exhibited as part of a reconfigured Collections display in gallery 26, titled The Making of an Artist: The Lucian Freud Archive. This archive display illustrates Freud’s creative process, with works exhibited side by side to demonstrate specifically how the artist reworked the face of his sitter in the final print. Other highlights include previously unseen sketchbooks and childhood drawings; the artist’s etching tools; and two artworks by Freud’s father, Ernst Freud.

The National Portrait Gallery acquired the archive of Lucian Freud in 2015, and – since its reopening in 2023 – has displayed the artist’s childhood drawings, letters and sketchbooks. This reconfigured display, which opens today, focuses on Freud’s life, artistic techniques and processes, with a particular emphasis his etching prints, plates and unsigned trial proofs.

“My father spent a long time working on Bella in her Pluto T-shirt, and he reworked my face several times before finalising the etching – it was really unusual for that to happen. And it was quite interesting, in a way, to see that not everything came out right, and how to deal with something when it doesn’t. Sometimes he would ‘scrap’ something, as he called it, and then start again. And this time he just didn’t… Eventually, it was good. I think that’s been a very useful lesson in my work and my life. You don’t give up: you look for a way to see how things can work and then something will come if you’re in that mindset.” -- Bella Freud, Fashion designer and daughter of Lucian Freud

“The Lucian Freud Archive at the National Portrait Gallery is an incredible resource that helps us share unique insights into the artist’s working practice, from his childhood drawings to later sketchbooks. Ahead of next year’s major exhibition, which will focus on Freud’s skill as a draughtsman across many mediums, this free archive display in gallery 26 will delve into the ways in which he worked as a printmaker, displaying his tools and trial proofs alongside new etchings – the first to enter the NPG’s Collection. We’re delighted the Arts Council has supported the NPG in allocating the etchings and archive material to us.” -- Carys Lewis, Archivist, National Portrait Gallery

“Over the course of his career, Lucian Freud developed a fondness for the National Portrait Gallery, working with us in the lead up to 2012 to produce the last major retrospective conceived in his lifetime. Partly in recognition of this relationship, the NPG is home to the artist’s rich and extensive archive, which has been at the heart of the research for this upcoming exhibition, Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting. This is the first museum exhibition in this country to focus on the artist’s works on paper. I look forward to sharing some of the fascinating and rarely exhibited archive material alongside important national and international loans when the exhibition opens in 2026.” --Sarah Howgate, Senior Curator Contemporary Collections, National Portrait Gallery



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