Cranach And Freud Poem by gershon hepner

I’m looking at two paintings, one
an ugly canvas of an ugly nude
by Freud; she’s looking overdone,
unike the Cranach, rather crude.
The Cranach, from which I can’t take
my eyes is of a princess who’s demure,
but with a beauty that can slake
the appetite of those who’re poor
and only can afford to pay
six million dollars, for the Freud,
art experts are predicting, may
cost twenty-four. I would avoid
some eighteen million dollars should
I choose the Cranach, which I would
if I had money, but I’m good
for neither, without livelihood.
It’s not that I bear animus
against the painter of the nude,
but I can’t be magnanimous
when instinct tells me to be rude.


Carol Vogel announces in the NYT that “one of Lucien Freud’s grotesquely realistic paintings of the naked, fleshy body of Sue Tilley dozing on a well-worn sofa, is being offered at Christie’s on May 14, with an estimated price of between $25 million to $35 million. On the same page of the NYT is an advertisement by Christie’s for an auction of Old Master paintings, with a photograph of Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Portrait of Princess Sybil of Cleves, Wife of Johann Friedrich the Maganimous of Saxony. It is estimated to come in at between $4,000,000-6,000,000.

4/11/08