Christie's will offer three early paintings by Lucian Freud from a single private collection at its London evening sale on 15 October, with a combined estimate of £13m to £20m. The works span three decades of Freud's career: *Woman with a Tulip* (1944, est. £3m-£5m), *Self-portrait Fragment* (around 1956, est. £8m-£12m), and *Sleeping Head* (1961–71, est. £2m-£3m). All three have been in the same collection for many years and have been exhibited widely, including in major retrospectives at the National Gallery, London, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
The sale matters because it brings together a rare group of early Freud works that trace his stylistic evolution from precise, icon-like early portraits to looser, more expressive brushwork influenced by Francis Bacon. The paintings have not been seen at auction in decades, and the high estimates—particularly for *Self-portrait Fragment*—reflect sustained demand for top-tier Freud works. The offering also highlights the enduring market for British figurative painting and the importance of provenance, as all three works have been held in the same collection for many years.