One of the foremost artists working today, Lucian Freud had redefined portraiture and the nude through his frank scrutiny of the human form. Although he is best known as a painter, etching is integral to Freud's practice. This volume accompanies a major Museum of Modern Art exhibition presenting the full scope of Freud's etchings, along with a critical selection of related paintings and drawings. Organized by Starr Figura, Lucian Freud: The Painter's Etchings includes seventy etchings - from the artist's rare early experiments of the 1940s to the increasingly complex compositions he has created since rediscovering the medium in the early 1980s - juxtaposed with some twenty-two paintings and seven drawings. Figura's essay in this catalogue examines the dramatic dialogue among mediums in Freud's practice, and explores the crucial cross-pollinating relationship between his etchings and his works on canvas. Pared down to essentials of line, often depicting figures cropped or isolated against empty backgrounds, Freud's prints achieve a startling degree of psychological tension and formal abstraction. Etching is here revealed as a medium uniquely suited to Freud's distinct artistic goals.