Sue Tilley by day was a supervisor working in a London Job Centre. At night she mixed with the avant garde in the Taboo club owned by the eccentric performance artist Leigh Bowery. She became his closest friend and he introduced her to the incredible artist Lucien Freud. Freud painted her on four occassions and in doing so created some of the most remarkable work of his life. His painting “Benefit Supervisor sleeping” was sold to Roman Abramovitch the owner of Chelsea football club for $34 million. Take a look on Google at Freuds work. Truly stunning. Do not bother with Roman!!

Many thanks to Sascha for a great set of plucking strings!!


You told her to rest awhile
She was happy to comply
Lots of flesh and more besides
Every inch a beauty in your eyes

Curves on curves need lots of oil
Lucien’s got a gift that is never foiled

Broad strokes canvas aches
A supervisor sleeping
Russian Man with money says she must be mine
Hang it in the changing room
At half time they’ll be surprised
Roman paid big money but Sue got recognised

Daytime job for the government
Out at night with the arty set
Bowery for a friend and confident
Picking out a life that is excellent

Rich men poor men beggars thieves
Everyone’s a voyeur wanting to be teased
Sue’s on a wall she’s heavenley
Probably offering someone stimulation

Skinny girls stare in awe
Sue is ample that’s for sure

Broad strokes etc

Benefits supervisor sleeping
Evening in the studio
Benefit supervisor resting
Sleeping by the lion carpet

The Mixversation

• Apoxode Well done! I must admit, I was both surp...
• Speck I like the mood and subject matter match...

Recommended by: Apoxode, panu (panumoon), Speck, Stefan Kartenberg (JeffSpeed68), Dan_Mantau, bahadir

"Lying Down For Lucien"
by Radioontheshelf

2019 - Licensed under
Creative Commons
Attribution (3.0)

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