On Paper charts the works on paper，including the etchings，over Freud's entire career，It includes the formative early work，the sketches in preparation for painting his masterpiece，Large Interior w11 (after Watteau) (1983)，the sketches of the completed painting in the studio and the astonishing later studies of his mother.The book ends with the large-scale etchings of recent years，In addition to Sebastian Smee's introduction，Richard Calvocoressi has provided an account of Freud's graphic works，drawing attention to a number of his little known illustrations for books.

Drawing is fundamental to Lucian Freud's development as an artist and to how he sees in a way that it was not，for example，at the foundation of the work of Francis Bacon.Drawing became an important part of Freud's life from the start and a famous sketchbook，'The Freud-Schuster Book'，dating back to January 194o when Freud was in Snowdonia with Stephen Spender，survived，So too do sketches from Freud's life as a merchant seaman on a cargo vessel in the Atlantic in 1941，His then surreal style lent itself to illustrations and his fascination with animals，birds and fish was revealed in the famous line drawings he produced for Nicholas Moore's book of poems，The Glass Tower (1944).

On Paper charts the works on paper，including the etchings，over Freud's entire career，It includes the formative early work，the sketches in preparation for painting his masterpiece，Large Interior w11 (after Watteau) (1983)，the sketches of the completed painting in the studio and the astonishing later studies of his mother.The book ends with the large-scale etchings of recent years，In addition to Sebastian Smee's introduction，Richard Calvocoressi has provided an account of Freud's graphic works，drawing attention to a number of his little known illustrations for books，The works on paper are an extraordinary achievement，providing even deeper insights into the work of the greatest figurative artist of our time.