Cork artist persuades famous Lucian Freud muse to pose nude with offer of £1m

Ian Brennan's 'On Painting Sue Tilley'. Picture: Ian Brennan

A Cork artist is challenging the art world to pay £1m (€1.15m) for a portrait of a woman who was previously the inspiration for Lucian Freud's work.

Ian Brennan will gift the proceeds from the painting’s sale at the world-famous Saatchi Gallery to writer and muse Sue Tilley who will pose naked for him for the first time since she sat for world-famous figurative artist Lucian Freud, grandson of pioneering neurologist Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis.

Falling down an ‘Instagram rabbit hole’ while he was sick in bed led to Mr Brennan finding Sue Tilley, who features in Freud’s famous painting Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, which sold for a record-breaking £17.2m to Roman Abramovich in 2008.

Ms Tilley, who wrote a biography about her friend, fashion icon Leigh Bowery, and who was depicted in Boy George’s musical Taboo, once told a journalist she would never pose naked for an artist again unless she was paid £1m.

Mr Brennan, who is originally from Limerick but has lived in Cork for 22 years, now plans to be the artist to paint her naked again. 

 “I just reached out and asked her if she'd be interested in sitting for me and told her that my work was heavily influenced by Lucian Freud," Mr Brenan said.

"And about a month later I was over in her sitting room."

The painting will be on display in the Saatchi Gallery in London from October 11-15. Picture: Ian Brennan

Ms Tilley was not a beneficiary of the massive price paid for Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, which she posed nude for, lying across a couch.

Neither did she make money from any of the four works of Freud’s she sat for which collectively sold for over £100m, Mr Brennan said.

“When I met Sue initially, I asked her if she would pose nude for me. And I got a strong no. And that was fine.

“And I said, look, how would you feel about sitting nude if I gave you £1m?

"I think it would make quite a story.

"And she didn't say no."

Selling this painting is now "an invitation to the art world" to facilitate another nude portrait of Ms Tilley and make art history, he said.

I'll be the first artist who she will have sat nude for since Lucien Freud.

“So it's a massive privilege.

“It's both such a responsibility to honour the process and to honour her as a person.

“She had breast cancer a couple of years ago and she had her breast removed.

“So I'm just very conscious of the sensitivity of the piece and what it means to honour her body at the age that she is now. She's 66.

“The message of courage and hope that it sends out for other survivors of breast cancer.

“I lost a very good childhood friend last year to breast cancer.

“So it just really resonates with me on so many levels.

"It's like everything has kind of come together into what will be a very important piece in the history of art."

Mr Brennan said he emailed the Saatchi Gallery about his painting of Ms Tilley a few weeks ago.

It will be on display in the gallery from October 11-15, with “a premium space at the entrance to the gallery”. 

Mr Brennan said he paints "the shadow side of the human condition".

"I would say to my sitter, not going to paint your beauty.

Ian Brennan with Sue Tilley: 'It's like everything has kind of come together into what will be a very important piece in the history of art.' Picture: Ian Brennan

“I'm going to paint an aspect of you and show the beauty of that.

“I generally cover themes of vulnerability, sexuality, sadness, anger and just bring the light onto what's considered the shadow-self and bring that out and show the beauty and try to capture the human condition in its raw state.

“I think I captured her [Ms Tilley's] protector, her wall and it's so important that we honour our protectors because they play an important part in keeping us safe.

“She's covered with a sheet in the painting and the sheet for me is a representation of the walls that we build to protect ourselves."

Mr Brennan, who trained as a psychotherapist, brings that training into his work, he said.

Before painting, he meditates with the sitter.

“And I do what's called a witnessing exercise where we look into each other's eyes for generally 10 minutes or more.

“There's no spoken words. It's just eye contact.

“And it's very intense.

“So it's almost like they're giving me an invitation into their soul through the eye contact exercise."