Above : Sue Tilley standing alongside Lucian Freud’s £35.8 Million painting of herself entitled ” Benefit Supervisor Resting”
ABOVE : LEFT TO RIGHT … A PERSONALLY INSCRIBED AND SIGNED PORTRAIT COPY OF THE LUCIAN FREUD PAINTING SOLD FOR £35 MILLION . THE MIDDLE PICTURE SHOWS A BRA OWNED AND WORN BY SUE , THIS BEING COMPLETE WITH HAND DRAWN AND SIGNED “HIS AND HER’S DOODLE SCRIBBLES” ON THE CUPS OF THE BRA . ( NOW POSSIBLY ONE OF THE MOST EXPENSIVE BRA’S IN THE WORLD ????) THIS BRA IS ON PERMANENT DISPLAY HERE AT LITTLDEAN JAIL . ON THE RIGHT IS A PHOTO OF ANDY JONES FROM LITTLEDEAN JAIL WITH SUE AT A LONDON ART EXHIBITION EVENT
Below: Freud’s Painting of a Jobcentre Clerk breaks his record : “Benefits Supervisor Resting” sells at auction for a staggering £35.8 Million
BELOW IS A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL PAINTING PREVIOUSLY INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY SUE TILLEY FOR DISPLAY AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL
A Lucian Freud painting of a voluptuous Jobcentre clerk has set a world record for the artist by selling for more than £35million.Benefits Supervisor Resting went under the hammer for £35.8million at Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art evening sale in Manhattan yesterday.The 1994 painting, which shows 280-pound Sue Tilley sitting naked on a sofa, was sold to London art dealer Pilar Ordovas on behalf of an anonymous buyer.Miss Tilley became Freud’s muse in the early Nineties, posing for £20 a day. Freud, who died in 2011, painted Miss Tilly – who he nicknamed ‘Fat Sue’ – four times.
Benefits Supervisor Sleeping is a 1995 oil on canvas painting by Lucian Freud depicting an obese, naked woman lying on a couch. It is a portrait of Sue Tilley, then weighing about 127 kg, a Job Centre supervisor. Tilley is the author of a biography of the Australian performer Leigh Bowery titled “Leigh Bowery, The Life and Times of an Icon”. Tilley was introduced to Freud by Bowery, who was already modelling for him. Freud painted a number of large portraits of her around the period 1994-96, and came to call her “Big Sue”. He said of her body “It’s flesh without muscle and it has developed a different kind of texture through bearing such a weight-bearing thing”.
The painting held the world record for the highest price paid for a painting by a living artist, of US$33.6 million (£17.2 million). It was sold at Christie’s in New York in May 2008 to Roman Abramovich.
ABOVE AND BELOW : VARIOUS HAND SIGNED EXHIBIT PIECES FROM SUE TILLEY ON DISPLAY AT THE JAIL , ALONG WITH HER BRA
ABOVE: SUE WITH HER CLOTHES ON
BELOW ARE SOME PHOTOGRAPHS OF A GREAT “TONGUE IN CHEEK” PERSONALLY OWNED AND WORN XXL BRA SIGNED ALONG WITH A HAND DRAWN DOODLE OF A “HIS AND HERS FACE ” …. ALSO HERE ON DISPLAY
SUE TILLEY’S HANDS DRAWN BY HERSELF FOR DISPLAY HERE WHILST SAT DOWN IN AN INDIAN RESTAURANT IN LONDON FOR A MEAL AND CHAT
Benefits Supervisor Sleeping is a 1995 oil on canvas painting by Lucian Freud depicting an obese, naked woman lying on a couch. It is a portrait of Sue Tilley, then weighing about 127 kg, a Job Centre supervisor. Tilley is the author of a biography of the Australian performer Leigh Bowery titled “Leigh Bowery, The Life and Times of an Icon”. Tilley was introduced to Freud by Bowery, who was already modelling for him. Freud painted a number of large portraits of her around the period 1994-96, and came to call her “Big Sue”. He said of her body “It’s flesh without muscle and it has developed a different kind of texture through bearing such a weight-bearing thing”.
The painting held the world record for the highest price paid for a painting by a living artist, of US$33.6 million (£17.2 million). It was sold at Christie’s in New York in May 2008 to Roman Abramovich.
The painting was exhibited twice at Flowers Gallery:
1996: Naked – Flowers East at London Fields
1997: British Figurative Art – Part 1: Painting at Flowers East