LONDON, ENGLAND.- The top-selling postcard at Tate Britain in 2002 was Lucian Freud’s "Girl With White Dog". The previous top-seller was "Ophelia" by Victorian artist Millais. The card has been a big seller after the gallery ran a three-month retrospective of Freud’s work. The painting, which is 50 years old, shows the artist’s first wife Kitty Epstein lying with a breast exposed and a dog on her lap. Millais’ Ophelia has been the biggest seller at the gallery for the last 10 years. It shows the heroine from Shakespeare’s Hamlet floating downstream after committing suicide.

 

Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota said: "This shows how the British audience for contemporary art has grown.  Millais’ Ophelia has been the bestseller for the last 10 years Millais’ Ophelia is an arresting image, but Freud’s Girl With White Dog is perhaps more challenging."