Lucian Freud

In 1964 Lucian Freud set his students at the Norwich College of Art an assignment: to paint naked self-portraits and to make them 'revealing, telling, believable... really shameless'. It was advice that the artist was often to follow himself. Visceral, unflinching and often nude, Freud's self-portraits give us an insight into the development of his style as a painter. The works provide the viewer with a constant reminder of the artist's overwhelming presence, whether he is confronting the viewer directly or only present as a shadow or in a reflection. Essays by leading authorities - including those who knew him well - explore Freud's life and work, and analyse the importance of self-portraiture in his practice and the intensity that he maintained when studying his own. Accompanies an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (27 October 2019 to 26 January 2020) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (22 February to 25 May 2020). Exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Lucian Freud (1922-2011) was interested in the telling of truths. Always operating outside the main currents of 20th-century art, the esteemed portrait painter observed his subjects with the regimen and precision of a laboratory scientist. He recorded not only the blotches, bruises, and swellings of the living body, but also, beneath the flaws and folds of flesh, the microscopic details of what lies within: the sensation, the emotion, the intelligence, the bloom, and the inevitable, unstoppable decay. Despite rejecting parallels between him and his renowned grandfather, the correlation between Lucian Freud's sitting process for portraiture and Sigmund Freud's psychotherapy sessions is a fascinating element to this figurative oeuvre. Despite the thickness of the impasto surfaces, Freud's portraits of subjects as varied as the Queen, Kate Moss, and an obese job center supervisor penetrate the physicality of the body with a direct and often disarming insight. The result is as much a psychological interrogation as it is an uneasy examination of the relationship between artist and model. This book brings together some of Freud's most outstanding and unapologetic portraits, to introduce an artist widely considered one of the finest masters of the human form.

Lucian Freud's artwork is both intimate and raw. The viewer is confronted with corpulent figures, nudity, and glimpses into the psyches of those he portrayed. The painter, who died in 2011, was the grandchild of psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. The UBS Art Collection contains the majority of etchings from Freud’s last creative phase, as well as one watercolor and two paintings—a total of fifty-four works of the highest quality that are simultaneously delicate and bold. The fact that the exhibition is held in Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau is of particular significance, as the city was Freud’s birthplace, from which he was forced to flee with his parents in 1933. With the help of the UBS Art Collection, it is as if the artist now returns home.

As intimate and meticulous as his revered portraits, Lucian Freud’s magnificent paintings and drawings of plant life are gathered for the first time in book form. Lucian Freud’s portraits are known for their spectacular detail and unflinching gaze. Although Freud brought the same qualities to his paintings and drawings of plants, flowers, and landscapes, these are largely unknown. This elegant book shows how working with plants emboldened Freud to experiment with style and composition. Reproduced in sumptuous plates that allow readers to indulge in exquisite detail, seventy-five works—including Two Plants, Bananas, Cyclamen, The Painter’s Garden, and Interior at Paddington—reveal Freud’s singular approach to plant life. Readers unfamiliar with this aspect of Freud’s work will find many similarities to his portraits—earthy palettes, unconventional rawness, and assiduous attention to detail. From the delicate realism of the cyclamens’ petals to the bold brushstrokes that immortalize his overgrown garden, readers will appreciate Freud’s ability to portray plants in new and personal ways. Comparative illustrations from throughout art history accompany essays on the history of plants in art and an appreciation of Freud’s oeuvre. This monograph is a tremendous contribution to Freud’s legacy, one that will enrich his admirers’ discernment while also introducing his thoroughly original depictions of plants to a new audience.

One of the foremost figurative artists working today, Lucian Freud has redefined portraiture and the nude through his unblinking scrutiny of the human form. And while most are familiar with Freud’s thickly impasted paintings, few realize how integral etching has become to his practice. Presenting an exceptional overview of Freud’s works on paper over his more than six-decade career, this oversized volume highlights the artist’s unconventional approach to the medium. Standing the copper etching plate upright on the easel, Freud treats the plate like a canvas as he depicts his sitters—very often friends, family members, or fellow artists—through meticulous networks of finely etched lines. Among Freud’s most notable trademarks is his tendency to dramatically crop figures and then isolate them against empty backgrounds, achieving through this juxtaposition a startling sense of psychological tension and formal abstraction. Freud is one of the most widely acclaimed British artists of our time and, with plentiful illustrations and an introduction by celebrated curator Norman Rosenthal, Lucian Freud: Portraits brings Freud’s lesser-known etchings deservedly to the forefront.

Speaking recently about his early years as an artist Lucian Freud claimed, 'I would have thought I did 200 drawings to every painting in those early days. I very much prided myself on my drawing.' Drawing is fundamental to Freud's development as an artist and to how he sees in a way that 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 1940 when Freud was in Snowdonia with Stephen Spender, has 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 his 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 etchings of recent years. The works on paper are an extraordinary achievement, providing even deeper insights into the work of the greatest figurative artist of our time.

A breathtaking visual biography of Freud, told through his own words, unpublished private photographs, and painted portraits. This unprecedented look at the private life of Lucian Freud begins with childhood snapshots and ends with rarely seen photographs made in his studio in the last weeks of his life. In between, the life of one of the most important artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is vividly documented - through family photos, in images of the painter in his studio with some of his most celebrated sitters, and in portraits by his peers, first among them Francis Bacon.

Lucian Freud dedicated his life to portraying the people in his world without flattery or refinement. Although his technique and style evolved tremendously over the decades, Freud never wavered in his uncompromising standards or unsentimental approach to his subjects. This introduction to Freud's life and oeuvre opens with an illuminating essay that explores how Freud's adherence to realism and focus on the human figure moved him in and out of the spotlight until the 1980s when renewed international interest in painting and figuration gave his work a new significance. Stunning reproductions of key works are presented chronologically, allowing readers to see how Freud's brushwork, composition, and use of light evolved over the decades. Whether he was painting members of the royal family or the cashier at a London nightclub, Freud imbued his portraits with psychological tension, humanity, and a profound interest in the relationship between painter and model.

A breathtaking visual biography of Freud, told through his own words, unpublished private photographs, and painted portraitsThis unprecedented look at the private life of...