By Dalya Alberge
When, in desperation, she offered to part with the print, telling them that it would more than cover the money she owed, they laughed at her.
Now that print — a portrait of her, given to her by the artist — is expected to fetch more than £16,000 at Bloomsbury Auctions in London on June 28.
Tilley, 48, a Jobcentre manager in Central London, met Freud in the early 1990s through another of his models, Leigh Bowery, the Australian performance artist. At 20st (127kg), she seemed an unlikely choice of muse for one of Britain’s greatest living artists — but Freud once said: “I have perhaps a predilection towards people of unusual or strange proportions.” He affectionately nicknamed her “Big Sue”.
Tilley, who believes that he chose her because of her ordinariness, sat for him for several portraits, four paintings and two etchings. This one, Woman with an Arm Tattoo, took about six weeks to create in 1996. It is inscribed “Sue T. from L.F”.
She has various tattoos, a lily on her upper arm and coloured stars on her shoulder. Freud considered them so vulgar that he painted her arms each morning with flesh-coloured paint for other works. This is the only etching in which he included the tattoo.
Freud is the most respected figurative artist in Britain. His record price was for his painting of the naked, pregnant Kate Moss, which sold this year for £3.9 million. Last month, a woman who appeared naked in his latest painting, unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery, was revealed as the 33-year-old sculptor Alexandra Williams-Wynn, who has been romantically linked with the 83-year-old artist for more than a year.
Alexander Hayter, of Bloomsbury Auctions, said: “Tilley’s image has become synonymous with Freud’s late works. It could be suggested that Freud’s fascination in the rendering of skin and flesh met its zenith in Tilley and in her particular build.
“It’s never been to auction before and I am sure that it will generate a great deal of interest, particularly since the provenance is so unique.”
SUE TILLEY MENU
JOE DONNELLY