A rare pairing, Bacon and Freud chose their favorite sitters for these extraordinary explorations of the female nude. As artists, they were considered the greatest painters of their age. Best friends in the 1950s, comrades in arms, and eventually after a fall out, distant and competitive observers of each other's success, Freud may not have gone out of his way to see socially Bacon after the 1970s, but he chose to live with only two artists's work in his home : a powerful Bacon of lovers and the paintings of Frank Auerbach. It is a unique opportunity to reunite two masters together and see how they stand shoulders above their peers, whatever generation. More updates on the hanging of Christie's May sales later today...