Model Jerry Hall to auction part of art collection, including Lucian Freud’s nude portrait

Jerry Hall’s art collection on auction block

LONDON — Model Jerry Hall plans to auction some of her art collection next month, including a famous portrait by Lucian Freud that shows her nude when she was eight months pregnant, Sotheby’s said Monday.

The auction will also include works by Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, David Bailey and other prominent artists collected by Hall, ex-wife of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger

The works will be sold on Oct. 15-16 as part of a larger contemporary art sale, Sotheby’s spokesman Simon Warren said.

Sotheby’s specialist Oliver Barker said the Lucian Freud portrait called “Eight Months Gone” is the centerpiece of the auction and is expected to fetch more than 300,000 pounds ($460,000).

“It’s a wonderful painting,” he said. “It was exhibited shortly after it was done at the Tate Gallery. He’s always been interested in maternity. It’s a very tender, loving painting.”

He said Hall was willing to sell part of her collection because she has entered a new phase in her life.

“She’s turning a new leaf,” he said. “She’s not afraid of change, she’s happy to let them leave and have other art lovers enjoy them.”

Hall said the unusually intimate painting came about after she and Freud were seated at a dinner together when she was eight months pregnant with her son Gabriel. The artist asked her if she would pose for him and said they had to begin immediately because she was so close to giving birth.

The collection also includes two other works by Freud, often acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest living painters.

Hall has worked in the theater since her separation from Jagger in 1999. Several of her daughters have followed her into modeling, becoming prominent in England.