Freud’s interest in the Old Masters is well known and documented. Less well known, however, are the visual connections between Carracci, one of the greatest Italian painters who took ‘nature’ as a point of departure in his art, and Freud, whose portraits capture a reality that is often unforgiving. Freud was familiar with at least two of Carracci’s most important head studies painted in the 1590s: Head of an Old Man, which he saw when he exhibited at Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1994 and Head of an Old Woman, Private Collection, London, which he studied closely. This exhibition juxtaposed three notable Carracci head studies with a series of Freud head portraits, each comparison revealed intriguing affinities, be they in technique, style, viewpoint or subject matter. For instance, the teaming of Carracci’s Portrait of a Bearded Old Man with Freud’s portrait of John Deakin from 1963–64 disclosed fascinating similarities in the subjects’ stance, the close scrutiny given to foreheads and ears, and the brush work. Through an intimate comparison of these two artists’ work,