Sue Tilley

Charcoal on canson portrait of Tilley

Sue Tilley (born 1957), also known as Big Sue, is a British artist's model and writer. She modelled on several occasions for painter Lucian Freud.

Biography

Born in south London,[1] Tilley worked for performance artist and club promoter Leigh Bowery as a cashier at his "Taboo" night club. Bowery introduced her to Lucian Freud in 1990 and she began posing for him the following year, as a model paid a small fee.[2] During this time, she was also a full-time benefits supervisor at the Charing Cross jobcentre, a state-operated employment agency, and she eventually became manager there.[3]

Freud painted several large nude portraits of Tilley, the first being Evening in the Studio (1993).[4] Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, painted in 1995, was sold at auction in 2008[5] for £17 million (US$33.6 million) in New York City.[6] In 2015, the 1994 painting Benefits Supervisor Resting[7] sold for £35 million ($56 million).[2] A fourth painting, Sleeping by the Lion Carpet, was painted in 1996.[8] Freud also produced a number of etchings depicting Tilley, some of which he gave to her, including Woman with an Arm Tattoo, which Tilley sold in 2005.[9] Tilley never receive any payment other than her modelling fee.[2] Tilley was friendly with Freud until he took offence at a remark she made and dropped her as a friend.

In 1997, she published Leigh Bowery: The life and times of an Icon, a biography.[10]

From September 2000 to March 2001, Chief Curator Rolf Lauter at Museum für Moderne Kunst, in Frankfurt, organized the only overview exhibition of Freud's works in a German museum, in close cooperation with the artist. The catalog, the invitation, and the poster included Freud's painting Sleeping by the Lion Carpet[11] from 1995/96 with Sue Tilley.

In 2015, she had a solo show of her own paintings and drawings in a London gallery. She collaborated with Fendi to decorate luxury clothes and bags with her pictures of desk lamps, bottle openers, banana skins, and cups of coffee.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Leigh Bowery: The Life And Times Of An Icon By Sue Tilley Now Available As An Ebook From Open Road Integrated Media". openroadintegratedmedia.com.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Laux, Cameron (14 May 2018). "Lucian Freud and Sue Tilley: The story of an unlikely muse". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  3. ↑ "The ballad of Big Sue". the Guardian. 30 June 2005. Retrieved 23 January 2026.
  4. ↑ "Evening in the Studio, 1993 - Lucian Freud - WikiArt.org". www.wikiart.org. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  5. ↑ "Lucian Freud portrait of naked benefits supervisor set to sell for £17m". the Guardian. 12 April 2008. Retrieved 23 January 2026.
  6. ↑ "Roman Abramovich 'revealed as Freud and Bacon buyer'". www.telegraph.co.uk.
  7. ↑ "Lucian Freud | Benefits Supervisor Resting (1994) | Artsy". www.artsy.net. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  8. ↑ Glover, Michael (29 July 2011). "Great Works: Sleeping by the Lion Carpet 1995-6 (228.6cm x 121.3cm), Lucian Freud". The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  9. ↑ "Freud tattoo model etching sold". 28 June 2005. Retrieved 23 January 2026 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  10. ↑ "Leigh Bowery: A life less ordinary". The Independent. 22 October 2011. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022.
  11. ↑ Lauter, Rolf (ed.). "Lucian Freud: Naked Portraits. Works from the 1940s to the 1990s, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main 2000/2001". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
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