Reading the catalogue ahead of visiting any exhibition always enhances the experience; and the current Lucien Freud show at the National Portrait Gallery is no exception.
Many of the unusual images he painted are brought to life by the comments and explanations contained within the excellent and well-written National Portrait Gallery catalogue.
One of Freud’s earliest works, painted at the tender age of 20, is a portrait of himself and his second wife in a Paris hotel room; a painting of such quiet beauty that it is easily comparable with other great artists in their early days. After all, Michaelangelo was also only 20 when he carved the Pieta in Rome, the heartbreaking image of a mother grieving for her son.
The National Portrait Gallery has assembled an impressive collection of experts, commentators and even close friends of Lucien Freud to contribute to the catalogue. An opening essay by Sarah Howgate explains the state of the British art world when Freud first appeared on the scene and explains just why he has become so influential while Michael Auping, who became close to Freud in his later years, explores the relationships between the painter and many of his subjects.
Finally, Freud’s close friend and writer of an impressive biography on Picasso, John Richardson, introduces the artist and his life to newcomers, while explaining just why his style was so loved by critics and the public alike. Of course, the catalogue is also full of stunning reproductions of Freud’s best known works, many of which appear in the National Portrait Gallery exhibition. The front cover is a portrait by Freud of his first wife, Kitty Garman; a painting which has echoes of15th-century portraits by Antonello da Messina.
The back cover is a later self-portrait from 1985, reminiscent of the honesty found in Rembrandt’s self-portraits. Freud painted one of his last works in July 2011, shortly before his death and the painting, Portrait of the Hound, is in the National Portrait Gallery show. There is some debate as to whether Freud had finished the painting, but it is still an impressive addition to an already excellent exhibition and catalogue.
Freud was lucky that, thanks to his family name and connections, he was able to count some of the world’s most famous people and the world’s most important art collectors among his friends. However, there is no doubt that it was his talent which persuaded figures such as Andrew Parker-Bowles,Jacob Rothschild, Baron Thyssen, David Hockney and even The Queen to sit for him.
He spent his later years in the country, viewed as something of an eccentric figure, but in his youth he loved the bright lights of London and made the most if his talent and fame. Sadly, two of Freud’s great works are not included in the National Portrait Gallery exhibition; a 1952 portrait of Francis Bacon on a copper plate was stolen in the 1980s while on loan to a Berlin museum and has never been recovered while a painting of his mistress Henrietta Moraes, also from 1952, is held by a private collector.
While their absence is no doubt mourned by both the National Portrait Gallery’s curators and aficionados of Freud’s work, it in no way detracts from the paintings which are on show or the quality of the catalogue.
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