Lucian Freud was an English artist who often did everything as he saw fit, disregarding the opinion of critics and the public. This manifested itself both in his art and in his personal life. He changed several art schools, but the academic canons taught there were completely uninteresting to him, so he wrote in his own style - provocative and provocative, which caused rejection from many art critics. But his personal life he carefully hid from everyone, although it was very turbulent - Freud married twice and became the official father of 14 children.
Reflection
Freud preferred to paint nude women, and he did not embellish his models at all, such as Pierre Auguste Renoir in his painting Portrait of Jeanne Samarie. Lucien was ruthlessly honest and preferred to write people not beautiful, but textured and interesting from the point of view of the artist himself. Let there be seen all the shortcomings of appearance, as in the painting “Sleeping social worker”, which, incidentally, was bought for 33.6 million dollars, but it shows the whole life path of a person, and some social problems of society reflected in his appearance.
Sleeping social worker
For example, obesity is largely, a habit of eating fast food among the poor, wrinkles are a consequence of old age and hard living. According to Freud, a person, while losing his external attractiveness with age, gains wisdom, which can be reflected in his portraits, but they should be completely uncovered. He himself painted a very extravagant self-portrait - imagine a man who is not old, worn out by life and yet completely naked.
Lucian Freud's life is very paradoxical. He was not very careful about his health, did not deny himself anything, but managed to live 88 years. He was a hard drinker and spent a lot of money at the races. But at the same time could be caring and gentle for people who were especially dear to the artist, and for friends was ready to fulfill any of their requests. He was loved by women, although Freud himself was a man secretive and withdrawn, something reminiscent of the character of our wonderful artist Valentin Serov. About his personal life wrote and judged, all who could not lazy, good reasons for this artist gave plenty, but Freud himself did not like to spread about it and if possible carefully concealed. He became a very famous artist, but no one has not written a biography about him.
About the strange work of Lucian Freud and his unusual life, full of contradictory behaviors, we will talk about in this article.
A young artist
Lucien was born in the family of a successful architect Ernst Freud, so he did not need money. However, in Germany, where his family lived and he came to power Nazis led by Hitler and his father showed great prudence when he moved with his family to London, where the attitude to the Jews was much more loyal. As if in water - his relatives were sent to Nazi death camps.
Freud attended several British schools as he was kicked out a couple times. He wasn't much for following rules, and once bet he could take his pants off in front of everyone. The conservative British did not appreciate such behavior. Disappointed in education, young Freud wanted to become a sailor, made a few sea tattoos, made friends with sailors and went on a voyage. But his health failed, because of severe tonsillitis had to abandon the dream of sailing.
And in mid-1940 he met Francis Bacon, and here the artists became firm friends and saw each other every day for 25 years. They had a lot in common - they both loved painting, drinking, drunken brawls and gambling. But they also improved as artists - Freud painted his portraits, at first somewhat hyperbolized, reminiscent of caricatures, then detailed and very realistic.
Francis Bacon's portrait
Bacon also painted several portraits of Freud, but these artworks were done in his manner - strange and somewhat frightening. In the end, even Freud did not bitch and said that Bacon's paintings are frankly creepy. He took offense, and the artists stopped communicating with each other.
Freud maintained relationships with many women, here he reminded Francisco Goya or Gustav Klimt. Officially Bacon recognized 14 children, but it was said that in reality there were about 40. However, he was a bad father - children from him got, if only a sounding surname and some scandalous fame. Some of his daughters even posed nude for Freud, according to them, it was the only way to communicate with him.
The girl in the plaid
Freud was married twice, but the marriages were fleeting and he did not like to talk about them. However, Caroline Blackwood he sincerely loved and very hard to survive the divorce from her.
And Lucian Freud loved his mother, perhaps the only woman to whom he has always had only warm feelings. After the death of her husband, she moped, but Lucien supported her in every way possible, and to distract her from unnecessary thoughts painted her portraits.
The artist's mother
There were many of them, Freud gave them more than 4 thousand hours of his time for 12 years, and thus he managed to prolong the life of his mother. However, he wrote honestly and thoroughly, without embellishing, writing out every wrinkle and every age-related change in her appearance.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Freud became famous for his paintings of nude women. Some saw this as outright misogyny, as many of the paintings showed women in a less than favorable light, and there were no embellishments, rather the opposite. As an argument, they cited two unsuccessful marriages and numerous relationships with women - it is not long to be disappointed in them, and the distance from disappointment to contempt and hatred is not far.
A room in a hotel
But his best portraits, according to art historians, Freud wrote with Lee Bauer - an epathetic artist and designer, who saw any appearance in public as an opportunity for another performance. When he simply went out on the street, he applied makeup, always wore unusual outfits and in general, in every possible way tried to look unconventional and provocative. However, it was, according to many of his friends, a kind of protective mask. He did not hide his non-standard orientation, and the physique was not like Apollo. In his own style with extreme honesty Freud and portrayed Lee Bauer - as if removing this mask, leaving an ordinary man with his fears and complexes. There was, however, a kind of beauty in that bribing honesty.
Lee in the sunlight
Freud always tried to perfect his portraits, artwork for months on each one. And every day the models had to pose for many hours. Sometimes, tired, they fell asleep, and this brought the artist even closer to his models. Posing Freud, compared his couch in the studio of the artist with the couch of a psychoanalyst - there you could get rid of their complexes and fears, to look at their lives in a new way.
In the opinion of the very Big Sue from the painting Sleeping Social Worker, Freud always did whatever he wanted without coordinating his actions with the opinion of others, was completely free of all conventions, said anything he wanted about people and did not even notice his rudeness. But at the same time could be caring and kind, surprisingly combining in himself all the traits of character. Perhaps through his portraits he revealed human nature so well that he was already disappointed in it.
Buy handmade goods or modern art you can on artAlebrio - is an international marketplace for people who want to create, sell, buy and collect unique items and art - buy the best with us artAlebrio.com.
By confirming your order you unconditionally accept these General Conditions of Sale
