British artist Lucian Freud is widely considered the most important figurative painter working today. Master portraitist and specialist in nudes, Freud uses impasto to create depth and intensity while restraining his color palate to mostly muted hues. His portraits may be physically unflattering to their subjects, but they are honest, frank, and unapologetic. I paint people, Freud has said, not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be.
Previously unpublished drawings from the private sketchbooks of the pre-eminent British painter offer a new perspective on the artist’s personality and artistic genius This revelatory publication features a selection of beautifully reproduced images from the sketchbooks of Lucian Freud (1922–2011), one of the world’s greatest realist painters. Most of the sketches – which include works in pencil, pastel, and watercolor from across the artist’s long career – are published here for the first time. These fascinating images extend our understanding of Freud’s work and demonstrate the scrutiny he brought to his subjects. The sketchbooks, now in the archive of the National Portrait Gallery, London, include portraits of Freud’s family members, friends, and lovers. Designs for book covers, images of his beloved dogs and horses, landscapes, and interiors appear among nudes, still lifes, and several sketches that relate to major works. Around and between the drawings are Freud’s annotations and jottings – appointments, racing tips, notes, musings – which, with startling immediacy, provide a glimpse into the working life of one of the 20th century’s most important artists. The book includes an insightful essay by Martin Gayford, who sat for portraits by Freud and knew him well, and an illustrated chronology of the artist’s life.
Lucian Freuds prächtige Gemälde und Zeichnungen der Pflanzenwelt Sein unerschrockener Blick und die eindrucksvollen Details seiner Werke brachten Lucian Freud zuweilen den Ruf ein, der „besessenste Maler des Fleisches“ zu sein. Wer hätte gedacht, dass Freud neben seinen brillanten Portraits auch hingebungsvoll Pflanzen gemalt hat? Obwohl Freud die gleiche Qualität in seinen Gemälden und seinen Zeichnungen der Pflanzen, Blumen und Landschaften zeigt, so sind diese dennoch kaum bekannt. Über 75 von Freuds Arbeiten, die unter anderem Alpenveilchen, Bananen, das Interiorat Paddington und den Garten des Malers zeigen, veranschaulichen seinen einmaligen Zugang zur Welt der Pflanzen und ermöglichen es, in die faszinierenden Details einzutauchen. Betrachter, die sich mit diesen Aspekten von Freuds Werken noch nicht beschäftigt haben, werden viele Parallelen zu seinen Portraits entdecken – erdige Farbtöne, unkonventionelle Rohheit und hingebungsvolle Aufmerksamkeit gegenüber Details. Freuds Vermögen, Pflanzen auf neue und persönliche Weise einzufangen, zeigt sich sowohl im filigranen Realismus der Alpenveilchenblüten als auch in den kühnen Pinselstrichen, die den wuchernden Garten verewigen. Vergleichende Illustrationen aus der Kunstgeschichte und Texte über die Geschichte der Pflanzen in der Kunst begleiten diese einzigartige Würdigung von Freuds Werk und liefern einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Hinterlassenschaft des Malers.
Phoebe Hoban, author of definitive biographies of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Alice Neel, now turns her attention to Lucian Freud, the grandson of Sigmund and one of the greatest painters England has produced. Lucian Freud: Eyes Wide Open is the first biography to assess Freud's work and life, showing how the two converge. In Hoban's dramatic and fast-paced narrative, we follow Freud from his birthplace in Berlin to London, where he fled with his family in the 1930s, and then to Paris, where he mixed with Picasso and Giacometti. He led a dissolute life in Soho after the war, gambling and womanizing with fierce energy. He painted his wives nude, his children nude, himself nude. He married twice, had an uncountable number of children, and kept working through it all, painting everyone from close friend and rival Francis Bacon to Kate Moss and Queen Elizabeth. He sometimes spent years on a single painting, which could require hundreds of hours of sittings. However various his subjects, his intent was always the same: to find and reveal the character hidden within by means of his intense visual imagination. Along with its startling biographical revelations, the great thrill of Lucian Freud: Eyes Wide Open is the way Hoban deconstructs the art itself—its influences, models, and technique—to show how Freud reproduced reality on the canvas while breaking down the illusion that what we see is real.
From his earliest years as a child prodigy, Lucian Freud prided himself on his virtuoso drawing skills. The interplay in his work between paper (for both drawing and etching) and canvas was a defining feature of his creative habits throughout his career, as Freud's foremost scholar and curator, William Feaver, establishes with this masterful overview of Freud's drawing output. The fruit of Feaver's privileged access to Freud's studio, Lucian Freud Drawings includes more than 100 drawings, around half of which have never been exhibited or published, from the 1940s up to the artist's death in July 2011. Examined here are portraits of Freud's mother and father, his children and close friends-among them the painter Francis Bacon and artist Leigh Bowery-as well as landscapes and studies of animals. Spanning more than seven decades, this beautifully produced volume illuminates the very foundations of this master draftsman's oeuvre.Lucian Freud was born in Germany in 1922, and permanently...
The book features over 400 reproductions of Lucian Freud's works, spanning seventy years and showcasing pieces previously unseen. It highlights his mastery in depicting the human form, particularly through female nudes, alongside cityscapes, plant studies, and interiors, all characterized by a muted palette and visible brushwork. Acclaimed art critic William Feaver offers insights into Freud's artistic journey and philosophies, emphasizing the emotional depth and honesty in his self-portraits. The volume celebrates Freud's legacy as a pivotal figure in contemporary art.
