In 1952, Lucian Freud and his first wife Kitty filed for divorce. The divorce was due to the infidelity of Freud himself. The painting of The Girl with the White Dog did use his wife Kitty as the model. The absent stare Kitty had in the painting could be related to their impending end to their marriage. The painting was meant to feel intimate but her face almost contradicts this feeling. Her position in the painting shows her unhappiness within their marriage. The painting was done in the same year that the divorce occured. Although the painting is meant to be intimate the title does not give the same feeling. The problems in their marriage definitely could have influenced Freud's art change. As before his paintings were not consisting of nudity. Another painting he made this same time was a boy smoking. Therefore his infidelity and problems in his marriage could have drawn him to put the breast showing, but also iclude the blank expression on his wife's face.
“Divorce.” Find Free Legal Help and Social Services in Tennessee, 16 July 2020, https://www.help4tn.org/divorce.
Freud, Lucian. “Girl with a White Dog, C.1951 - C.1952 - Lucian Freud.” Www.wikiart.org, 1 Jan. 1970, https://www.wikiart.org/en/lucian-freud/girl-with-a-white-dog.
Tate. “'Girl with a White Dog', Lucian Freud, 1950–1.” Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/freud-girl-with-a-white-dog-n06039.
The reason I offered these three events is to give you some background on what was occuring when Freud began this painting and was in the making of it. These three events let you understand the things that influenced his art style change. Freud's style use to not include nudity. His means of making the painting stayed the same as he always used people he was close to, but he engaged more in this photo with Kitty's facial expression. Her facial expression in his painting was hinting towards the unhappiness of their relationship that was coming to an end. He was also influenced to change his style due to the Nobel prize being awarded for changing styles. This was a great time for him to change his style with the festival of Britain occurring so it was easily accessible to publicize his work. With the first beauty pageant occurring and the unfaithful tendencies that Freud had could inspire his work towards nudity. Which after this painting we see further progress into many more nude paintings. The divorce of the model Kitty and Freud and the finishing of this painting occurred in the same year which would very much explain the emptiness on her face in the painting.