Feature: Exhibition - Lucian Freud Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery until May 27
Published: 9 February, 2012
by JOHN EVANS
When he died seven months ago one obituary writer dug up an old quotation from the artist: “My work is purely autobiographical. It’s about myself and my surroundings.”
Well, Lucian Freud (1922-2011) was doing himself down, as even a cursory visit to the National Portrait Gallery’s major retrospective of his work, open from February 9, will demonstrate.
Freud was successful from the outset, even as a teenager, and famously was able to paint on his own terms, meticulously, and without undue haste.
Perceived as often arrogant and difficult (and certainly prone to feuds) nevertheless, the range and depth of the 130 works gathered for this show from around the world, many from private collections and not exhibited before, is testament to a great artist who could see beyond himself and into others.
And the definition is wide. Freud said: “Everything is autobiographical and everything is a portrait, even if it’s only a chair.”
Paintings and some drawings, from as early as 1940 feature, right through to the last one left on the easel at his death last July.
Portrait of the Hound 2011, the unfinished canvas depicts his friend and assistant David Dawson and his dog Eli.
Arranged more or less chronologically, the show was planned with Freud’s participation.
It allows examination not only of how his style varied over time (compare, for example, Girl in a Dark Jacket from 1947 with the Reflection self-portrait of 1985) but also how the care he took in trying to ease out the personality of his sitter, which never wavered.
Girl in a Dark Jacket is, of course, one of a number of studies of his first wife Kitty Garman.
The intimacy of the artist and sitter is the inspiration and central to the works; whether it is his mother Lucie, father, wife, brother, daughter, lover or friend, the intensity is constant.
Freud said: “I’ve always wanted to create drama in my pictures, which is why I paint people. It’s people who have brought drama to pictures from the beginning. The simplest human gestures tell stories.”
And fellow artists were subjected to his gaze. David Hockney, for example, said he found the whole business of sitting for Freud fascinating and the result pleased him.
There is also Freud’s oil of Frank Auerbach and many others; a pencil sketch of Francis Bacon from 1952, paintings of Cedric Morris, Angus Cook, Cerith Wyn Evans, Sophie de Stempel, et al.
A large amount of flesh is on display, including the paintings of “Benefits Supervisor” Sue Tilley and performance artist Leigh Bowery and many more.
And the self-portraits are particularly worthy of close study in the light of Freud’s perceived arrogance. Arguably, they are the best of all his works.
• Lucian Freud Portraits is at the National Portrait Gallery until May 27. Tickets, £14, concessions available, www.npg.org.uk or call 0844 248 5033
• Pictured above Reflection (Self-portrait), 1985, Private Collection, Ireland © The Lucian Freud Archive