'Ib' is the nick-name of Isobel Boyt, one of Freud's daughters.
I have already posted here two earlier paintings of her by her father.
The first showed her as a young child, lying half naked on the floor of his studio beside an enormous plant. ('Large Interior, Paddington 1968-9)
The second was the morose group that I called 'The Glums' ('Large Interior W11'), where once again she was shown lying on the floor, although somewhat older.
In today's painting she poses once again in Freud's studio, this time with her husband.
Both look intimately comfortable and relaxed. Perhaps they were asleep through Freud's many lengthy sittings!
The paint on the wall above the radiator is the accumulated scrapings which Freud removed from his canvas, wiped from his brush, and pasted onto any wall that was within reach.
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This painting was sold in September 2007 for £9.3 million ($19.3 million)
