Freud's last work to go on show for the first time at the National Portrait Gallery

Exhibition: Lucian Freud Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London, February 9 – May 27 2012

The last work of Lucian Freud will go on show for the first time at the National Portrait Gallery as part of the most extensive retrospective of the late artist’s portraiture.

After years in the making, Lucian Freud Portraits will see the inclusion of Portrait of the Hound 2011, the unfinished nude painting of Freud’s assistant David Dawson with his dog Eli.

From his first portraits in the 1940s to his most recent works painted prior to his death on 20 July 2011, more than 100 paintings and works on paper make up the exhibition.

The show promises to be the most ambitious in ten years, concentrating on particular periods and groups of sitters to show Freud’s stylistic development and technical virtuosity.

Described by the artist as "people in my life", both iconic and rarely seen portraits of the Freud’s lovers, friends and family have been selected to demonstrate the observational intensity of his work.

Sitters represented in the exhibition include his mother Lucie and artists such as Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Frank Auerbach and Leigh Bowery.

Bowery’s friend Sue Tilley, the "Benefits Supervisor" who was immortalised by Freud in a series of monumental paintings in the 1990s, is also included in the exhibition.

The show will also highlight the recurring importance of the self-portrait in Freud’s work.

• Open 10am-6pm (9pm Thursday and Friday). Admission free.