Lucian Freud

After Constable's Elm

2003

Lucian Freud was one of the most influential portrait artists of the 20th century. His figurative paintings offer an unabashed view of his subjects, which included friends, family members and lovers, and are visceral and revealing while intuitively respectful. He was lauded by some and criticized by others for often painting his subjects nude, brazenly undraped or sensually posed.

Born in Berlin, Germany, in 1922 to Jewish parents, Freud and his family fled the oncoming war in 1933, settling in North London, England. He attended Goldsmiths College in London. When war erupted, he enlisted in the British Merchant Navy.

Freud’s paternal grandfather was the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who also fled Germany before the war, but died in 1938. Lucian Freud maintained a lifelong fascination with psychoanalysis and instilled a psychological intensity in his work. 

In his early years, Freud leaned toward realism, but as he aged and spent time with other artists, he began to explore Surrealism and Expressionism. He was part of a group of artists known as the School of London, which included Francis Bacon, Leon Kossof and Frank Auerbach. Artist R.B. Kitaj characterized these painters as having a unique style of work that leaned heavily into the figurative.

Bacon is considered Freud’s most significant influence. Before their friendship, his paintings were linear and thinly painted. After meeting Bacon, he stopped using soft sable brushes and employed stiff hog hair brushes, trimming them down to nubs. He used thick paint, layering and smearing each application to build forms through pigments. Even into his 80s, he would often paint for 14 to 18 hours a day, frequently depicting his subjects at larger-than-life-size. His artistic process could last one to two years for each work as he spent intensive time with prospective models.

He died in 2011 at age 88. Freud’s paintings can be found in numerous museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Britain in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He was appointed a Companion of Honour in 1983 and a member of the Order of Merit in 1993.

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