“In the late 1980s, not yet antique but merely old-fashioned, Lucien Freud was shunned by the museums and his practice seemed to have reached a dead end. And while there are particular circumstances that explain Freud’s resurrection–above all the simple fact of his survival which illogically confers on a career the stamp of authenticity and sincerity–it is also linked to the much remarked upon revival of painting in the last few years.”