Lucian Freud - by his sitter

I was on the Today programme this morning to talk about Lucian Freud with Martin Gayford, who was painted by Freud. You can listen to the discussion here.

An exhibition of Freud's portraits opens at the National Portrait Gallery on Thursday, the first major exhibition since the painter's death in July 2011.

There have been very few painters of the human form like him. He's got this way of noodling into the individual sitter.

Gayford - who should know - describes the experience of sitting for a Lucian Freud portrait as simultaneously "excruciating" and "absolutely fascinating".