Arts & Entertainment, Art
Paintings by Lucien Freud with titles
Contrary to the obvious opinion, realism in painting in its pure form is very rare and has a long history.
Grandson of the founder of psychoanalysis
Lucien's father is Ernst Ludwig Freud, the youngest son of Sigmund Freud, who made humanity look at himself in a new way, the nature of human thoughts, desires and actions. The grandson became a worthy heir to the famous grandfather: paintings by Lucien Freud by means of painting showed new depths of the human universe.
He was born in 1922 in Vienna, but when the Nazis come to power in Germany in 1933, he and his family move to the UK. At first the boy does not feel comfortable in the new country. Bad English forces to loneliness, parents fully support his desire to paint, and the artist Lucien Freud, whose paintings will cost millions, begins his long journey, which lasted until the end of the first decade of the next century.
Search yourself
The artist's first works in many respects corresponded to the spirit of the forties of the last century: he did not abandon figurative painting in favor of complete abstraction, but sought a new look at the surrounding. He denied any influence of the masters of the past or contemporaries, but some of Lucien Freud's paintings of the initial stage of creativity are considered surreal. This seems understandable - it was the ideas of his grandfather that in many ways became the theoretical basis of the current.
This is the "Artist's Room" (1943-1944) with the head of a zebra, literally peering into the creative space of the master of the brush. But these motifs can be considered accidental: Lucien gets a close, almost optical look, a filigree, precise and rigid "Durer's" drawing ("The Hare on the Chair," 1944) and at first a smooth and elaborate manner, similar to the style of the masters of the protre-renaissance and Northern Renaissance. The first significant portraits appear: "A Woman with a Tulip" (1945), "A Man's Portrait with a Noodle" (1945), etc.
Main genre
He said that he was always more comfortable to communicate with animals ... His animalistic masterpieces - "Foal" (1970), "Eli" (2002), "Gray gelding" (2003) are widely known; His still lifes are impressed with technique and content - "The Box of Apples in Wales" (1939), "The Still Life with a Book" (1991-1992), but above all the paintings of Lucien Freud are portraits.
He almost never painted custom-made or ceremonial portraits, except for the famous image of Queen Elizabeth II (2000-2001), and always drew only those who were interesting to him and whom he knew well. In many respects it began with the first wife - Kitty Garman, with whom they lived for four years. In her portraits - "The Girl in the Dark Jacket" (1947), "The Girl with the Kitten" (1947), "The Girl with the White Dog" (1952) - the master finds his main theme, but continues the search for a picturesque style.
Francis Bacon. Tactile Realism
The only artist Freud could call his mentor was another classic of post-war art - Francis Bacon, who was 15 years older than him. They are exhibited together in the pavilion of Great Britain at an exhibition in Venice, Freud writes several of his portraits.
It is believed that it is under the influence of Bacon that the particular picturesque manner in which Lucien Freud is recognized is finally formed. His paintings lose their former smoothness, perfectionist approach to decoration, characters lose light stylization and become more weighty, they acquire flesh and blood, and this flesh is imperfect, it has the most natural and earthly signs, it is physiological, the portraits acquire stunningly written skin and hair that cause Almost tactile sensations.
Another beauty
"I write people the way they could be," said Lucien Freud. Pictures of the period of his creative maturity speak of a man in a way that was not accepted before him. The artist forms a unique approach to the image of nudity. He is far from academic and classical traditions, goes beyond the Impressionists, ruthlessly showing the momentary weight of the human body, its frailty. For him, the main thing is the sense of presence, the reality of the encounter with the character. The beauty of proportions and color combinations becomes unimportant, the beauty becomes different.
There is an amazing thing: people's faces are almost caricatured distorted, their bodies are far from the ancient proportions, the poses are tense and shameless, nudity induces weak erotic emotions, extinguished by frank naturalism - but these portraits do not cause denial, with every minute the significance of the existence of each person, The author's surprise is in the harmony of God's creation, even if it takes unusual forms.
Of course, his art is too extraordinary not to raise waves of silent misunderstanding and loud rejection. Many moralists are annoyed by the pictures signed by the name of Lucien Freud: "Daughters, albeit illegitimate, but their own, to show in this form can only pervert!" Yes, his art will never be accepted by all without exception.
Middle Circle
He was called the master of the past century. He never wrote on photographs, did not watch movies and television, he always worked from nature, and for a long time carefully studying every detail, sometimes bringing the models to utter exhaustion - it's no accident that his paintings have many sleeping and lying models.
Another thing becomes clear even after a brief acquaintance with a phenomenon like Lucien Freud: the pictures (photos presented in the article) made in his studio show a high degree of mutual trust between the artist and the model. It is not accidental that his relatives, friends, wives, mistresses, children are legally and illegitimate on the best canvases of Freud (the total number of which, according to unspecified data, is not less than four dozen).
Stunning portrait series of the artist's mother. After the death of her husband, Lucy Freud attempted suicide, and her son, making her a model for his paintings, tried to give her strength to continue life, to give her meaning. She lived for almost two decades and remained on graphic sheets and magnificent canvases: "Mother of the Artist" (1972), "Portrait in the Interior" (1973), "The Artist's Mother during the Rest" (1976), etc.
Favorite models
He called himself a man of habit, he did not become uninteresting person, whom he wrote many times, for a long time. Now we are interested to observe how the person is changing, and how the master himself is changing. He had several such models:
2. The closest friend and assistant David Dawson - "David, Pluto and Eli" (2001), "David and Eli" (2003).
3. Susan Tilly. It led to Freud Lee Bowery, of whom she wrote a book. We see her in the pictures "A Woman with a Tattoo on Her Hand" (1996), "Sleeping on a Lion Carpet" (1996). It served as a model for the most expensive painting, which was written by Lucien Freud - "The Social Worker Is Sleeping" (1995). This painting was sold at auction in 1995 for $ 33, 6 million unthinkable for the living artist.
The last classic of figurative painting
He left in 2011, almost 90-year-old, after spending most of his life at the easel. Glory and money, which did not interest him very much, came when he was already very old. The last Cezannist, the last existentialist, the legend of expressionism - art critics do not like when there is no corresponding label, in their opinion.
Remained and unknown, but made by an artist named Lucien Freud paintings, and the names that are included in the world history of painting: "Interior in Paddington" (1951), "Reflection with two children" (1965), "Large interior, W11 (based on Watteau ) "(1981-1983), self-deprecating self-portrait of 1993" Artist at work. Reflection "," After Cezanne "(2000), a portrait of the artist David Hockney (2002)," Brigadier "(2003), one of the last self-portraits -" Artist caught unawares by a naked fan "(2007).
Paradox - one of the signs of a real, extraordinary artist. The great contradiction arouses interest in the painting of Lucien Freud: he seems to say: "I look detached, I'm not interested in the inner world, I want to transfer the surface, the shell." But you can not believe in the grandson of the creator of psychoanalysis: his pictures - a fascinating conversation, enriching the attentive viewer with knowledge and about a specific person, and about the whole universe.
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