Study visit - All too Human

Nice exhibition at the Tate Britain mainly of portraits and figures in a variety of styles. My daughter, who went there before me was converted to liking Francis Bacon, and although I can't say that I like his work I appreciate it better having seen it in real life. My favourite displayed work of his was Dog (1952) This link really doesn't do it justice, I liked the balance between the dog and the cars in the background, the way he left large areas of canvas unpainted and the way he suggested movement with the brush strokes.
David Bomberg's Toledo from the Alcazar was both more colourful and more textured than it looks like in this link.
F N Souza doesn't paint in a style that I particularly like but I love his use of colour. The paintings look like they have been done in stained glass. I prefer his cityscapes particularly Red Sun (1966)
I have always quite liked Euan Uglow Woman with White Skirt is a sympathetic but realistic portrayal of a middle aged woman. The man behind me observed that as a picture it gives a better representation of its era than a photograph would have. In the same room William Coldstream manages to paint three dimensional people even though he planned his paintings in great detail and you can still see the guide marks. I was amused to see Seated Nude (1973-74) on the wall behind the plant in Orange Tree 1. An early example of self promotion.
In my view Frank Auerbach is better at people than he is at buildings. I love his messy lively charcoal  drawings and I really liked the messy painted Head of EOW (1960) which resolved and dissolved as you moved closer or further away.
Lucien Freud was incredibly clever both as a draughtsman and a painter, but his finished paintings seem very static to me though it was nice to see them in the flesh. His early paintings with flat heads and big eyes do nothing for me but I do admire his later work even if they don't excite me.
RB Kitaj Some of his work was too highly coloured and looked a bit lazy to me in terms of composition and execution but I think that it all came together in The Wedding and the way that he applied paint and used the view from the window in To Live in Peace (The Singers) 1973-74 (the colours in the link are horrible but I include it for reference)
My absolute favourite was a painting at the end of three girls by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye called The Host over a Barrel. They are lit from behind and the background could be plants and shrubs on a rainy night or they could be on stage or waiting in the wings. They absolutely pulse with life, maybe because she aims to finish each painting in one day? Yiadom-Boakye doesn't portray real people but bases her figures on a combination of reference material and sketches.