British Painter Lucian Freud has died aged 88

British painter Lucian Freud, known for his intense portraits, particularly of nudes, has died, his New York-based art dealer, William R Acquavella said Thursday. He was 88.

William R. Acquavella, his dealer, said in a statement that he would mourn Freud "as one of the great painters of the twentieth century."  "He lived to paint and painted until the day he died, far removed from the noise of the art world," he added.

In recent years his paintings commanded staggering prices at auction, including one of an overweight nude woman sleeping on a couch that sold in 2008 for $33.6 million.  Freud's work can be found in major public collections around the world, including the Tate Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery in London, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

‘The vitality of his nudes, the intensity of the still-life paintings and the presence of his portraits of family and friends guarantee Lucian Freud a unique place in the pantheon of late 20th century art,’ said Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate art gallery.

Freud was the grandson of Sigmund Freud, a leading pioneer of modern psychoanalysis. He was born in Berlin in 1922 and moved to London with his parents Ernst and Lucie Freud in 1933 after Hitler and the Nazis rose to power in Germany. He stubbornly refused to follow the trends of that world, insisting on using his realist approach even when it was out of favor with critics and collectors. He developed his own unique style, eventually winning recognition as one of the world's greatest painters.