Lucian Freud Portraits

by Lucian Freud, Michael Auping (Contributor), John Richardson (Contributor)

Portraits were central to the work of Lucian Freud (1922–2011). Working only from life, the artist claimed, "I could never put anything into a picture that wasn't actually there in front of me." This major retrospective catalogue surveys Freud's portraits across the seven decades of his career. Featuring the finest portraits from public and private collections around the world, the book explores the stylistic development and remarkable technical virtuosity of an artist regarded as one of the most innovative figurative painters the medium has known.

Freud's chosen subjects were often his intimates—family members, friends, and artistic colleagues such as Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Leigh Bowery, and David Hockney. Freud was private man who rarely gave interviews, and his thoughts on the complex relationship between artist and sitter and the challenges of painting nudes and self-portraits are published here for the first time, documented in a series of interviews with Michael Auping, conducted between May 2009 and January 2011. An illustrated chronology of the artist's life provides fascinating insights into Freud's background as a grandson of Sigmund Freud, and his unorthodox artistic education.

An essential book for every personal art library, this lavishly illustrated volume celebrates the work and career of an artist who overturned traditional portraiture and offered a new approach to figurative art.

Genres: Art, Biography, Nonfiction, Visual Art

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Lucian Michael Freud was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewish architect Ernst L. Freud and the grandson of Sigmund Freud. Freud got his first name "Lucian" from his mother in memory of the ancient writer Lucian of Samosata. His family moved to England in 1933, when he was 10 years old, to escape the rise of Nazism. He became a British naturalized citizen in 1939. From 1942 to 1943 he attended Goldsmiths College, London. He served at sea with the British Merchant Navy during the Second World War.

His early career as a painter was influenced by surrealism, but by the early 1950s his often stark and alienated paintings tended towards realism. Freud was an intensely private and guarded man, and his paintings, completed over a 60-year career, are mostly of friends and family. They are generally sombre and thickly impastoed, often set in unsettling interiors and urban landscapes. The works are noted for their psychological penetration and often discomforting examination of the relationship between artist and model. Freud worked from life studies, and was known for asking for extended and punishing sittings from his models.

Reviews

[Jon Margetts]

Brilliant selection of one of the most original and startling figurative painters of the 20th century. The introductory essays provide an excellent starting point for those new to Freud's style and development as an artist.

[Michael Scott]

+++ Excellent subject matter - high quality paintings by the same painter, who changed his style over the six decades he's been active. (That Lucian Freud is widely regarded as a world-class portraitist also helps.)
++ High quality reproductions of his paintings and etchings.
+ Good chronological index.
+/- OK introductory chapters and necessary interview.
-- Less inspired analysis and critique.

[Mahatma]

Mooi op het process te volgen

[Ken George]

a thoroughly researched biography /portraits of this wonderful creative artist ..i found reading about his life and the people he associated with fascinating ..his take on life was very laid back ..but the other side to his nature reveals a constant need to be driven to paint ie..money . in a sense he was his own prisoner in the respect of being such a great artist his paintings sold for high amounts of money leaving him with the feeling of "no need to paint i have money"so he would get rid of the money as fast as he could to put him back into the need to earn a living and therefore to paint again ...money actually held very little interest to this great artist...his life was about painting.. A wonderful read ..the book contains over 130 of his paintings,etchings,and drawings a must read for the enthusiastic artist..be it amateur or professional ...

[Bart]

This is a very good book from a breathtakingly good exhibition at The Modern in Fort Worth, Tex.