Lucien Frued

reflection-self portrait 1985

Lucien Freud
Much like Jenny Saville, Lucien Freud is not afraid to portray the realities of flesh, the flaccid stretching bodies of close friends and family that are his subjects.
Spanning decades, Lucien Freud’s career has seen the German born, British living artist rise to prominence in the international art world. Grandson of Sigmund Freud (founder of psychoanalysis) Lucien Freud has risen to fame as the seminal British figure painter of the twentieth century.

Girl with a white dog 1951-52

Freud’s early working style used sparse thin paint, the canvas showing through underneath the layers of paint. The eyes of his subjects are stylized, often large and detailed, unnerving the viewer with their frank intensity. His painting style advanced with the use of impasto paint with muted colours. His figures are usually sprawled out in pose, lying on a rug or coach and occasionally with an animal, to quote the artist: "The subject matter is autobiographical, it's all to do with hope and memory and sensuality and involvement, really. Portraiture and figurative artwork have been the central subjects for his work, although occasionally he paints still lifes. Freud's grandest artistic achievement is to refashion the figurative genre, which is traditionally devoted to the sensual and beautiful, into an exploration of anxiety, discomfort and stress, his subjects not nude but startlingly naked and exposed to the painter eye.

large interior

Freud’s ability to paint people meets somewhere at the crossroads of painting the appearance of things and painting the identity of things. Freuds capturing brushstrokes hold stretches of time, rather than snapshots ( such as the way paintings done from photographs appear) often from multiple angles and views- such as the image below
The room and subjects don’t seem aligned in normal perspective, but somehow exist in the parameter of the room.

The sexual organs have prominence in the canvases of Freud’s work, but exist to confront the viewer in the strongest possible way, painted coarse and powerful. Through his painting style his subjects are presented raw and vulnerable, fleshy objects and knowing subjects, allowing the painter to present a mirror to their appearance without idealization or sympathy.Large interior 1973

naked man with rat 1978

Freud’s legacy seems somehow entwined with his grandfather Sigmund, both men whose observations and “readings” of people have resulted in powerful historical achievements. Despite a century of modernist domination of the art market, Freud’s success both commercially and historically is unparalleled. Despite the attraction of modernist styles, Frued’s work has remained consistent with the artist’s own voice and direction, his output consistent but not predictable.