Girl with a White Dog, 1951–1952, Tate Gallery. Portrait of Freud's first wife, Kitty Garman
Lucian Freud was a British artist, famous for his portraits and self-portraits painted in an expressive neo-figurative style. He was born in Berlin, the grandson of the revolutionary psychologist Sigmund Freud, and the son of an architect Ernst Freud and an art historian Lucie Brasch.
Freud’s representation in public was corresponding to the image of bohemian artist. Quite unruly to all the authorities, he was expelled from a few schools at an early age, and later on, his reckless behavior was said to be the cause of the fire in one of the schools. He drew attention to himself wherever he went with his companion - a pet hawk on his wrist or shoulder. Freud used to spend days going to diners, gambling, and spending time in the company of the British aristocrats, socialites, and artists. Among them was the painter Francis Bacon, who was greatly affecting Freud’s work - until an end of their friendship, which was inevitable having in mind their characters and a lack of respect for each other’s later work.
Freud belonged to the School of London, a group of artists dedicated to figurative painting. This approach was highly controversial to an art world which, at that time, was dominated by abstraction. Compared with other prominent painters of that school - David Hockney, or Francis Bacon - Freud was stylistically a more conventional artist. He painted people without idealizing them, emphasizing sexual characteristics and imperfections of a human body. In his paintings, he used to describe unease or somehow disturbed mental conditions of specific individuals, but also of humans in general.
Influenced by early 20th-century Expressionism, Freud’s wide, textured strokes evoke the art of Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele. His anthropomorphic depictions of objects such as chairs, shoes, etc., as well as his tilted perspective, reminds us of Vincent van Gogh’s style. By the end of 1960s, Freud’s strokes became heavier and more layered. His style changed towards recognizable expressive naked portraits, which represented deformed and unpleasant bodies. Later on, during the 1980s and 1990s, when he became increasingly popular, Freud made portraits of many famous subjects - an art critic Martin Gayford, an artist David Hockney, and the British Queen Elizabeth II. Freud is also famous for his self-portraitists which he painted obsessively. He had been making them persistently for over six decades, which reminds us of the tradition of Rembrandt and Schiele. His self-portraits show deep introspection, detailed analysis of his facial expressions, and the emotions behind them.
Once he established his recognizable style, Freud didn’t change it until the end of his artistic career. His long and tiring sessions with his sitters could be compared to the psychoanalytic practice of his grandfather. Freud challenged conventions of portraiture and inspired a new generations of painters, such as John Currin or Eric Fischl.
(wikiart.com)
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