Tom Rosenthal

Bare necessities | 28 July 2007

The Naked Portrait<br />at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Compton Verney

issue 28 July 2007

The Naked Portrait

Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, until 2 September, then Compton Verney, Warwickshire, from

29 September to 9 December

The advance publicity I saw for this on the whole excellently curated exhibition contained a health warning: ‘Please note this show contains nudity. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.’

The title comes from the phrase used by Lucian Freud for several of his nudes but, alas, for the prurient, there are few images that might disturb or inflame either adults or children, except perhaps one of a woman holding a silk rosette bearing the word ‘Boob’ against her own left breast mutilated (but not removed) by surgery.

The show limits itself to nude portraits and self-portraits from 1900 to 2007 and is a skilful mix of classics of modern art and contemporary work by artists not yet famous, with a fair proportion of photographs and a little sculpture to counterbalance the natural dominance of the paintings.

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