Head of a Boy, soul of an artist

Few artists can deliver such impact within a space measuring 18 x 18cm as did Lucian Freud with Head of a Boy, his 1956 portrait of 16-year-old Garech Browne who died, aged 78, in 2018.

Browne grew up to become one of the most important patrons of the arts in Ireland of his time. According to his close friend Lord Gowrie, chairman of Sotheby’s from 1987 to 1994, “Freud caught the teenage Garech ...