Benefits Supervisor Sleeping

{{Short description|1995 painting by Lucian Freud}}

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File:Benefits Supervisor Sleeping.jpg

Benefits Supervisor Sleeping is a 1995 oil on canvas painting by the British artist Lucian Freud depicting a naked woman lying on a couch. It is a portrait of Sue Tilley, a Jobcentre supervisor.{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/11608941/I-didnt-set-out-to-be-Lucian-Freuds-muse.html|title=I didn't set out to be Lucian Freud's muse|last=Tilley|first=Sue|date=May 16, 2015|website=The Telegraph|access-date=May 21, 2018}}

Tilley is the author of a biography of the Australian performer Leigh Bowery titled Leigh Bowery, The Life and Times of an Icon. Tilley was introduced to Freud by Bowery, who was already modelling for him. Freud painted a number of large portraits of her around the period 1994–96, and came to call her "Big Sue". He said of her body: "It's flesh without muscle and it has developed a different kind of texture through bearing such a weight-bearing thing."National Portrait Gallery, Exhibition booklet for Lucian Freud Portraits, 2012, Section VII

The painting held the world record for the highest price paid for a painting by a living artist when it was sold by Guy Naggar{{Cite web |url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cbdd4f36-5529-11dd-ae9c-000077b07658.html#axzz3l3nusfDK |title=Art on the move - FT.com |access-date=2015-09-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909153956/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cbdd4f36-5529-11dd-ae9c-000077b07658.html#axzz3l3nusfDK |archive-date=2015-09-09 |url-status=dead }} for US$33.6 million (£17.2 million){{cite news | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7398949.stm | title = Freud work sets new world record | accessdate = 2008-05-14 | work = BBC Online | date=2008-05-14}} at Christie's in New York City in May 2008 to Roman Abramovich.{{cite news | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1981367/Roman-Abramovich-revealed-as-Freud-and-Bacon-buyer.html | title = Roman Abramovich 'revealed as Freud and Bacon buyer' | accessdate = 2008-05-18 | newspaper = The Daily Telegraph | location = London | first = Stephen | last = Adams

| date = 2008-05-18}}

Freud's painting The Brigadier was sold for £35.8 million ($56.2 million) in 2015, four years after his death, replacing Benefits Supervisor Sleeping as the most expensive Freud painting sold at auction.{{Cite news|url=https://www.hull2017.co.uk/discover/article/lipstick-leigh-bowery-lucian-freuds-35m-muse/|title=Lipstick, Leigh Bowery and me… by Lucian Freud's £35m muse – Hull UK City of Culture 2017|work=Hull UK City of Culture 2017|access-date=2017-07-25|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522112043/https://www.hull2017.co.uk/discover/article/lipstick-leigh-bowery-lucian-freuds-35m-muse/|archive-date=2018-05-22|url-status=dead}}

The painting was exhibited twice at Flowers Gallery:

• 1996: Naked – Flowers East at London Fields
• 1997: British Figurative Art - Part 1: Painting at Flowers East