Lucian Freud exhibition opens with royal visit

Freud's self portrait: A woman takes a smartphone photo of a painting by British artist Lucian Freud entitled 'Self Portrait Refection 2002' at an exhibition of his paintings at the National Portrait Gallery in London, on Wednesday.(AP/Alastair Grant)

There is a vast amount of flesh - clear and smooth or wrinkled and mottled - on display in the latest show at Britain's National Portrait Gallery, a retrospective of work by Lucian Freud.

Freud was the most renowned portrait painter of the 20th century, and he found that clothes often got in the way.

The gallery is showing more than 100 paintings completed over 70 years, many of them nude studies of the artist's friends and family. Freud worked with the gallery on the exhibition for several years before his death in July at age 88.

The Duchess of Cambridge, wife of Prince William, will attend a preview Wednesday.

It is open to the public from Thursday until May 27, then moves to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, July 1 to Oct. 29.