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Breakfast with Lucian: The Astounding Life and Outrageous Times of Britain's Great Modern Painter
An insider's account―the first of its kind―of the thoroughly unconventional life of one of the twentieth century's most shockingly original painters
Lucian Freud's paintings are instantly often shocking and disturbing, his portraits convey a profound yet compelling sense of discomfort. Freud was twice married and the father of at least a dozen children, and his numerous relationships with women were the subject of much gossip―but the man himself remained a mystery. An intensely private individual (during his lifetime he prevented two planned biographies from being published), Freud's life, as well as his art, invites questions that have had no answer―until now.
In Breakfast with Lucian , Geordie Greig, one of a few close friends who regularly had breakfast with the painter during the last years of his life, tells an insider's account―accessible, engaging, revealing―of one of the twentieth century's most fascinating, enigmatic, and controversial artists. Greig, who has studied his subject's work at length, unravels the tangled thread of a life lived on Freud's own uncompromising terms. Based on private conversations in which Freud held forth on everything from first love to gambling debts to the paintings of Velázquez, and informed by interviews with friends, lovers, and some of the artist's children who have never before spoken publicly about their relationships with the painter, this is a deeply personal memoir that is illuminated by a keen appreciation of Freud's art.
Fresh, funny, and ultimately profound, Breakfast with Lucian is an essential portrait―one worthy of one of the greatest painters of our time.
An NPR Best Book of the Year
Lucian Freud's paintings are instantly often shocking and disturbing, his portraits convey a profound yet compelling sense of discomfort. Freud was twice married and the father of at least a dozen children, and his numerous relationships with women were the subject of much gossip―but the man himself remained a mystery. An intensely private individual (during his lifetime he prevented two planned biographies from being published), Freud's life, as well as his art, invites questions that have had no answer―until now.
In Breakfast with Lucian , Geordie Greig, one of a few close friends who regularly had breakfast with the painter during the last years of his life, tells an insider's account―accessible, engaging, revealing―of one of the twentieth century's most fascinating, enigmatic, and controversial artists. Greig, who has studied his subject's work at length, unravels the tangled thread of a life lived on Freud's own uncompromising terms. Based on private conversations in which Freud held forth on everything from first love to gambling debts to the paintings of Velázquez, and informed by interviews with friends, lovers, and some of the artist's children who have never before spoken publicly about their relationships with the painter, this is a deeply personal memoir that is illuminated by a keen appreciation of Freud's art.
Fresh, funny, and ultimately profound, Breakfast with Lucian is an essential portrait―one worthy of one of the greatest painters of our time.
An NPR Best Book of the Year
272 pages, Hardcover
First published October 16, 2012
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December 8, 2020
The grandson of that other famous Freud, Sigmund, Lucian Freud became one of the most famous artists of the late 20th and early 21st century while fiercely resisting public exposure, including having his photos taken or giving interviews, for most of his lifetime. Geordie Greig contrived after years of repeated efforts and conniving to secure a series of breakfast interviews with the notoriously monomaniacal artist, and also interviewed friends, former lovers and models after Freud had died of unmentioned causes in July 2011. Only after his passing were they willing to break their vow of silence, even though Freud had acted in outrageous ways toward them. They’d all been captivated and under the influence of the immense charm and influence he exerted over them. Freud was not above employing thugs to threaten journalists and reporters who had the notion of working on biographies about him, so fear of his wrath was an effective a silencer as any.
His tremendous talent and the one passion which guided his whole life, to which all sacrifices were made was his art, which eventually evolved to his signature paintings of nude models, often of friends and his family, including his own children, or of people he met who were willing to pose for him over many months, for sessions lasting long hours. As a person he seemed to have more disturbing faults than can be enumerated, and as a father probably sent all his children into lifelong therapy (my own conjecture only). His other singular passion was sex, which he reportedly indulged in as frequently as he could with little regard for convention, nor about siring children. He had fourteen recognized daughters and sons, two from his first wife and 12 from various mistresses, none of whom had much contact with him. His art was his consuming passion, his single obsession to perfect himself in that single sphere of life, which ended up paying him back handsomely in riches and recognition. Love him and his work or hate him, he was a fascinating character, very well read and full of culture and stories.
This book, both gossipy and filled with interesting tidbits and background information about some of his most well-known paintings, is a real treasure-trove and also a great treat in the audio format as narrated by John Standing, an actor and an aristocrat who might very well have been among the kind of people Freud himself would have happily associated with in his long and fruitful lifetime.
I borrowed the print edition from the library to see what I may have missed, suspecting it was probably illustrated with many of the paintings mentioned in the text and featuring pictures as well, and that is indeed the case, so I'd say both audio and book are worth getting your hands on.
His tremendous talent and the one passion which guided his whole life, to which all sacrifices were made was his art, which eventually evolved to his signature paintings of nude models, often of friends and his family, including his own children, or of people he met who were willing to pose for him over many months, for sessions lasting long hours. As a person he seemed to have more disturbing faults than can be enumerated, and as a father probably sent all his children into lifelong therapy (my own conjecture only). His other singular passion was sex, which he reportedly indulged in as frequently as he could with little regard for convention, nor about siring children. He had fourteen recognized daughters and sons, two from his first wife and 12 from various mistresses, none of whom had much contact with him. His art was his consuming passion, his single obsession to perfect himself in that single sphere of life, which ended up paying him back handsomely in riches and recognition. Love him and his work or hate him, he was a fascinating character, very well read and full of culture and stories.
This book, both gossipy and filled with interesting tidbits and background information about some of his most well-known paintings, is a real treasure-trove and also a great treat in the audio format as narrated by John Standing, an actor and an aristocrat who might very well have been among the kind of people Freud himself would have happily associated with in his long and fruitful lifetime.
I borrowed the print edition from the library to see what I may have missed, suspecting it was probably illustrated with many of the paintings mentioned in the text and featuring pictures as well, and that is indeed the case, so I'd say both audio and book are worth getting your hands on.
December 1, 2013
Never look at your heroes too closely, for they will appear all too human. I love Freud's paintings. The man himself is a monster of selfish, arrogant, ridiculous proportions. As the author describes the most outrageous behaviors, it is all forgiven because Freud is a genius.
No. Come on. Knock it off. The time when artists of genius can be forgiven their cruelties and inhuman qualities is over. Isn't it?
Anyhow. The book is enjoyable. Occasionally I got lost in the tangle of names and relationships. There are some fantastic anecdotes and you'll get a lot of insight into who Freud was.
You know, assuming you want to know Freud's dirt. Freud was a degenerate gambler hobnobbing with gangsters & murderers. Simultaneously he hung out with the rich, begging for money now and then to pay off gambling debts. Additionally Freud was a man-whore who fathered so many children with so many different women, no one is actually sure how many kids he sired. 14 are accounted for, but some speculate there's more like 25.
Do I have mixed feelings about this book? Oh yes. I wanted to know more about this artist, and now I know too much. The book is well written, for the most part. There are some muddy bits. The author does seem a little worshipful and apologetic. He might be a little too close to the subject matter to give an objective perspective.
Still, worth reading.
No. Come on. Knock it off. The time when artists of genius can be forgiven their cruelties and inhuman qualities is over. Isn't it?
Anyhow. The book is enjoyable. Occasionally I got lost in the tangle of names and relationships. There are some fantastic anecdotes and you'll get a lot of insight into who Freud was.
You know, assuming you want to know Freud's dirt. Freud was a degenerate gambler hobnobbing with gangsters & murderers. Simultaneously he hung out with the rich, begging for money now and then to pay off gambling debts. Additionally Freud was a man-whore who fathered so many children with so many different women, no one is actually sure how many kids he sired. 14 are accounted for, but some speculate there's more like 25.
Do I have mixed feelings about this book? Oh yes. I wanted to know more about this artist, and now I know too much. The book is well written, for the most part. There are some muddy bits. The author does seem a little worshipful and apologetic. He might be a little too close to the subject matter to give an objective perspective.
Still, worth reading.
January 25, 2014
One of the benefits of being married to an artist is finding an odd and engaging book like this. Lucian Freud, grandson of Sigmund himself, and, along with Francis Bacon, the enfant terrible of modern British painting, was an omnivore: consuming art, friends, sexual partners (hundreds), wives (2), children (14), and the wealthy social elite with equal gusto.
It’s hard not to regard this jaunty mix of biography and celebrity profiling by newspaper editor Georgie Greig with equal parts awe and distain. Freud, who died in 2011 at age 88, may have been an artistic genius, but he was also someone who unapologetically used people like an elegant meal that he would toss away, half eaten, as soon as he saw a more enticing dish appear. He had many passionate affairs, but in the end, his only true loves were himself and painting.
After years of pursuit, Greig succeeded in tracking the elderly Freud to his breakfast lair, a restaurant in Notting Hill, where the reclusive painter allowed Greig into his inner circle. The result is Breakfast with Lucian, a compilation talks and reminiscences, coupled with interviews of former wives, lovers, children, colleagues, and friends (both close and estranged), that I found both entertaining and jaw-dropping.
Freud was a captivating individual who nevertheless ruthlessly subjugated everyone and everything to his painting and portraiture obsession. He was a great, if peculiar painter of the (usually naked) human form, coupled with an unslakable sexual appetite for women, and the occasional man. Both elements suffuse his paintings, even in their blotchy, sagging, aging reality.
Greig identifies a common denominator in Freud’s artistic and personal life: his refusal to ever compromise his determination to live by his own rules nor acquiesce to the needs of others unless it suited him. In his art, this meant that he pursued his obsession with portraiture, based on intense observation and character study, whether his paintings were considered unfashionable and passé, in the 1970s and 80s, or later, when the same works brought him international renown, and millions in sales.
In his private life, he combined this fierce independence with a need for privacy, a taste for high living, whatever the state of his income, and a relish for personal feuds – “a later falling out” becomes one of Greig’s most common descriptions of Freud’s relations of women as well as his art-world friends and colleagues. Freud indulged a gambling addiction, stole back paintings if a client displeased him, engaged in relentless social climbing, and maintained the ability to manipulate and seduce women, mostly younger, well into his 70s. According to Greig, It was not uncommon for Freud to sleep with the daughters of former lovers decades after his affair with their mothers.
Freud’s oldest child was born in 1948, the youngest 36 years later. He painted nude portraits of a number of his children, calmly ignoring all the uproar it triggered. The emotional cost to those around him was no doubt high, although Greig pulls his punches by quoting women and children looking back years and decades later, when the pain had been softened by time.
His painting practices were often equally remarkable. How do you keep a live rat calm for hours while posing for Naked Man with Rat? Feed it champagne and a crushed teaspoon of sleeping pills at intervals. Duh. Everyone who was anyone in Freud’s world either posed for him, or wished to – from Queen Elizabeth to his bookie. But as his ex-wife Caroline Blackwood accurately complained, he often painted them looking much older than they actually were. “His portraits have always been prophecies rather than snapshots of the sitter as physically captured in a precise historical moment,” she wrote to Greig.
Freud died honored and rich, surrounded by perhaps a larger circle of friends and family members than he deserved. Something of monster, but a sacred monster of contemporary painting.
It’s hard not to regard this jaunty mix of biography and celebrity profiling by newspaper editor Georgie Greig with equal parts awe and distain. Freud, who died in 2011 at age 88, may have been an artistic genius, but he was also someone who unapologetically used people like an elegant meal that he would toss away, half eaten, as soon as he saw a more enticing dish appear. He had many passionate affairs, but in the end, his only true loves were himself and painting.
After years of pursuit, Greig succeeded in tracking the elderly Freud to his breakfast lair, a restaurant in Notting Hill, where the reclusive painter allowed Greig into his inner circle. The result is Breakfast with Lucian, a compilation talks and reminiscences, coupled with interviews of former wives, lovers, children, colleagues, and friends (both close and estranged), that I found both entertaining and jaw-dropping.
Freud was a captivating individual who nevertheless ruthlessly subjugated everyone and everything to his painting and portraiture obsession. He was a great, if peculiar painter of the (usually naked) human form, coupled with an unslakable sexual appetite for women, and the occasional man. Both elements suffuse his paintings, even in their blotchy, sagging, aging reality.
Greig identifies a common denominator in Freud’s artistic and personal life: his refusal to ever compromise his determination to live by his own rules nor acquiesce to the needs of others unless it suited him. In his art, this meant that he pursued his obsession with portraiture, based on intense observation and character study, whether his paintings were considered unfashionable and passé, in the 1970s and 80s, or later, when the same works brought him international renown, and millions in sales.
In his private life, he combined this fierce independence with a need for privacy, a taste for high living, whatever the state of his income, and a relish for personal feuds – “a later falling out” becomes one of Greig’s most common descriptions of Freud’s relations of women as well as his art-world friends and colleagues. Freud indulged a gambling addiction, stole back paintings if a client displeased him, engaged in relentless social climbing, and maintained the ability to manipulate and seduce women, mostly younger, well into his 70s. According to Greig, It was not uncommon for Freud to sleep with the daughters of former lovers decades after his affair with their mothers.
Freud’s oldest child was born in 1948, the youngest 36 years later. He painted nude portraits of a number of his children, calmly ignoring all the uproar it triggered. The emotional cost to those around him was no doubt high, although Greig pulls his punches by quoting women and children looking back years and decades later, when the pain had been softened by time.
His painting practices were often equally remarkable. How do you keep a live rat calm for hours while posing for Naked Man with Rat? Feed it champagne and a crushed teaspoon of sleeping pills at intervals. Duh. Everyone who was anyone in Freud’s world either posed for him, or wished to – from Queen Elizabeth to his bookie. But as his ex-wife Caroline Blackwood accurately complained, he often painted them looking much older than they actually were. “His portraits have always been prophecies rather than snapshots of the sitter as physically captured in a precise historical moment,” she wrote to Greig.
Freud died honored and rich, surrounded by perhaps a larger circle of friends and family members than he deserved. Something of monster, but a sacred monster of contemporary painting.
January 21, 2015
I don't know what to say. What a life. There is something empowering for an artist, in reading this book.
So, what did I know about Lucian Freud before reading this book? Not much. I knew his work, but very little about the man and his life. What did I learn about Lucian Freud from this book? A great deal. Not a lot was known about the artist himself, he kept a strict code of privacy with all those in his life. Even his many offspring didn't know how many siblings they had. Freud knew no fear, he led an extraordinary life. He had incredible self belief. He once said to his son "there is no such thing as free will - people just have to do what they have to do."
So, what did I know about Lucian Freud before reading this book? Not much. I knew his work, but very little about the man and his life. What did I learn about Lucian Freud from this book? A great deal. Not a lot was known about the artist himself, he kept a strict code of privacy with all those in his life. Even his many offspring didn't know how many siblings they had. Freud knew no fear, he led an extraordinary life. He had incredible self belief. He once said to his son "there is no such thing as free will - people just have to do what they have to do."
May 21, 2014
A fascinating study of a man whose preoccupations in life were painting and screwing. One takeaway from the biography is that while the rest of the artists of his generation were engaged in the high comedy that is post-Second World War abstract art, Freud stuck to this guns, year after year, devoting himself to the insanely unfashionable practice of depicting the human figure; at last, in his senescence, the man hits colossal stride; megastars and royalty fall at his feet; women in their twenties just can't get enough of the horny geezer; and all as a result of total commitment to Art. But that narrative doesn't fly. Thanks to the family name and legacy the Artist as Young Snot was publishing work at topnotch journals at 17. It's more excellent thinking that here's a man who knew from a young age he had nothing to lose, and so recognized that he could spend the rest of his life rolling dice with the universe.
One of the big revelations for me is the amount of effort required to get one single portrait right. What he demanded of his models was a jail-term in his studio. They weren't allowed to move - hold that position!! - while a female guest would arrive, the excess energy of guest and painter were burned off, as they banged each other somewhat quietly in a backroom against the wall. Guest leaves satisfied; painter returns to Art, and not even with so much as a "Now where was I?" This would go on for months. I am not a fan of the portraits. Though critics of art do, invariably referring to the "psychological complexity" of the sitter the artist has captured. I never see it. To have complexity you must see an individual in relation to another. Catching someone's character through expression painted only once is just an observance of mood. We are prone to them - big deal. Those who see "psychological complexity" in a single snapshot are admitting to a weakness for cult of personality. But there are more than portraits.
To me the biggest mystery of the book is not to answer "What was with the animal urges?" but "Why was handling more than one individual at a time in a portrait such a stretch for him?" He says as much here - I can't handle two at a time, let alone three. It's a shame, because I think his "Large Interior W11 (after Watteau)" is a masterpiece; a great poem emerges from a run-of-the-mill British flat. I like "Artist and Model" too, but Celia Paul stepping onto a tube of paint as she makes it go SQUIRT! SPLOOGE! feels like a lame joke. "And the Bridegroom" might be another masterpiece, as a woman's bare foot sets something else off in a flat: a morning-after mood that asks him for another. And in Britain of all places - not the most erotic place in the world.
Freud's 1940s and 1950s reminded me a lot of what college was like, except we weren't stealing duchesses from under a buddy's nose, or the girl from the 32nd marquis of such-and-such county. I am shocked royalty still extends itself into the present. I thought that went out with empire. It's not surprising that his two marriages occurred at a time when his ring of friends, his social circles, was much more tightly interconnected - needing a steady or a wife is how some people cope with the never-ending cycle of competition when vying for new partners friends are after too, with feelings of betrayal part of the process of fucking. Freud's "need for privacy" was probably not much more than the necessity of getting rid of one's social circle, which are tyrannical in their moral demagoguery when your main interest in life is the opposite sex. Get rid of them and then you'll never have to feel anything excessively emotional about who you're screwing.
Greig's book is a very good one, probably one of the better ones I've ever read on an artist. For a book on art it is remarkably free of bullshit. Freud's bio that details the hundreds of women he slept with, the dozen or so he truly loved, the numbers of children he helped birth from all this activity presents a judgment call to make on the man I am not going to make. What really interests me from the bio is that he seems to have had almost no interest in his contemporaries except those he personally knew, like Bacon and Auerbach and Hockney. He knew what he wanted to paint, followed the masters, and set nothing in between him - the women he knew intimately were his only contemporaries. Now that's a man to truly admire.
One of the big revelations for me is the amount of effort required to get one single portrait right. What he demanded of his models was a jail-term in his studio. They weren't allowed to move - hold that position!! - while a female guest would arrive, the excess energy of guest and painter were burned off, as they banged each other somewhat quietly in a backroom against the wall. Guest leaves satisfied; painter returns to Art, and not even with so much as a "Now where was I?" This would go on for months. I am not a fan of the portraits. Though critics of art do, invariably referring to the "psychological complexity" of the sitter the artist has captured. I never see it. To have complexity you must see an individual in relation to another. Catching someone's character through expression painted only once is just an observance of mood. We are prone to them - big deal. Those who see "psychological complexity" in a single snapshot are admitting to a weakness for cult of personality. But there are more than portraits.
To me the biggest mystery of the book is not to answer "What was with the animal urges?" but "Why was handling more than one individual at a time in a portrait such a stretch for him?" He says as much here - I can't handle two at a time, let alone three. It's a shame, because I think his "Large Interior W11 (after Watteau)" is a masterpiece; a great poem emerges from a run-of-the-mill British flat. I like "Artist and Model" too, but Celia Paul stepping onto a tube of paint as she makes it go SQUIRT! SPLOOGE! feels like a lame joke. "And the Bridegroom" might be another masterpiece, as a woman's bare foot sets something else off in a flat: a morning-after mood that asks him for another. And in Britain of all places - not the most erotic place in the world.
Freud's 1940s and 1950s reminded me a lot of what college was like, except we weren't stealing duchesses from under a buddy's nose, or the girl from the 32nd marquis of such-and-such county. I am shocked royalty still extends itself into the present. I thought that went out with empire. It's not surprising that his two marriages occurred at a time when his ring of friends, his social circles, was much more tightly interconnected - needing a steady or a wife is how some people cope with the never-ending cycle of competition when vying for new partners friends are after too, with feelings of betrayal part of the process of fucking. Freud's "need for privacy" was probably not much more than the necessity of getting rid of one's social circle, which are tyrannical in their moral demagoguery when your main interest in life is the opposite sex. Get rid of them and then you'll never have to feel anything excessively emotional about who you're screwing.
Greig's book is a very good one, probably one of the better ones I've ever read on an artist. For a book on art it is remarkably free of bullshit. Freud's bio that details the hundreds of women he slept with, the dozen or so he truly loved, the numbers of children he helped birth from all this activity presents a judgment call to make on the man I am not going to make. What really interests me from the bio is that he seems to have had almost no interest in his contemporaries except those he personally knew, like Bacon and Auerbach and Hockney. He knew what he wanted to paint, followed the masters, and set nothing in between him - the women he knew intimately were his only contemporaries. Now that's a man to truly admire.
January 11, 2014
Lucian Freud, grandson of Sigmund, died in 2011 at the height of his painting career. At the time of his death, he was the most prominent painter in England and his works were selling for millions of dollars. For the most part, his life was charmed.
But Lucian had a less savory side. He was verbally abusive to family and friends, had an unrestrained libido, a powerful gambling addiction, and was extremely self-centered, unconcerned how his actions might effect others close to him.
The book, "Breakfast with Lucian", recounts all of this but in a somewhat disjointed way. The book is not organized chronologically, but rather in chapters of subject matter. Typical chapter titles include: "Obsession", "Paint", "Lovers" and "Offspring".
Keeping track of his wives, lovers and children requires an end-of-the-book organization chart that the author thankfully provides. And at times, the text is a swirl of disjointed names of artists, girlfriends, competitors, dukes and duchesses, bohemians, art dealers and bookies. And the author provides little structure to organize these names. Still, Freud himself was a fascinating, if deeply flawed, artist. And intriguing to read about.
But Lucian had a less savory side. He was verbally abusive to family and friends, had an unrestrained libido, a powerful gambling addiction, and was extremely self-centered, unconcerned how his actions might effect others close to him.
The book, "Breakfast with Lucian", recounts all of this but in a somewhat disjointed way. The book is not organized chronologically, but rather in chapters of subject matter. Typical chapter titles include: "Obsession", "Paint", "Lovers" and "Offspring".
Keeping track of his wives, lovers and children requires an end-of-the-book organization chart that the author thankfully provides. And at times, the text is a swirl of disjointed names of artists, girlfriends, competitors, dukes and duchesses, bohemians, art dealers and bookies. And the author provides little structure to organize these names. Still, Freud himself was a fascinating, if deeply flawed, artist. And intriguing to read about.
December 28, 2024
Well-written but one wonders how short it would have been had Freud not slept around so much and had complicated love-triangles with so- and-so's wife who was the daughter of the Duke of Bingleford who had 8 affairs with women descended from Rembrandt, George Washington and Charlemagne himself
March 27, 2021
read this following celia paul's Self-Portrait memoir about her relationship with Lucian Freud. having read this on the heels of Life with Picasso i would just like to say both men were dicks. the anecdotes tho.
April 17, 2014
An amazing book about a genius who had no conscience. I found it fascinating.
Just for starters he had 14 kids with many different women and painted most of them in the nude. This is gossipy and monstrously fun. Makes one think about morality in a very different and interesting way.
Just for starters he had 14 kids with many different women and painted most of them in the nude. This is gossipy and monstrously fun. Makes one think about morality in a very different and interesting way.
October 27, 2013
A gossipy tale of the last 25 years of the artist's life, loves, and passions. Includes candid family photos and pertinent paintings, plus the fly-on-the-wall observations of a (presumably) non-threatening observer. A fun,easy read with great visuals.
February 18, 2014
Prurient, after all. I wish his biographer had made more of Lucian's life than his conquests... Wonderful where it's Lucian's voice and not Geordie Greig's.
I'll update with the best quotes in a bit.
I'll update with the best quotes in a bit.
November 20, 2013
Lucian Freud was a world-class rake and this book tells the tale in a dishy cavalcade of names and anecdotes. A guilty pleasure.
November 2, 2014
Lucian Freud appears to have been a misogynistic asshole, but he was a great painter. This story seems familiar. And the author still goes all fan-boy on him. Old perverts, both of them!
October 25, 2020
Lucian Freud was one of the greatest painters of our time. His ‘naked portraits’ created an entirely new genre in the depiction of the human body, exposing flesh in unflattering and often disturbing ways. The profound psychological unease that emanates from some of these paintings is no coincidence. Take, for example, Naked Man with Rat (1978), which depicts a long-haired man who holds a rat in close proximity to his genitals. The sitter once asked Freud, “Is it necessary right from the beginning of the picture that I should be holding the rat? Can’t the rat come in later?”, to which the painter responded, “No, because it is the whole emotional attitude that matters. Being with the rat would affect the whole portrait. If the rat was not there your mind would be working differently.” It is this mastery of concentrated observation, combined with a perfectionist zeal, that gives Freud’s paintings a unique quality.
As is so often the case, it’s impossible to separate the man from his art. Freud lived a blatantly selfish life without much of a conscience, keeping scores of lovers and fathering as many as 30 children. He was a man who pushed boundaries, artistic as well as sexual: “Lovers, sitters, strangers and his own children went through an ever-revolving set of doors, often unaware of each other but with damaging repercussions when they did. He was the only person who knew the full cast of characters who sped in and out of his studio or bedroom.” Thanks to his charm and magnetism, he got away with even the most indefensible behavior. To quote the daughter of one of his lovers, “He was as magical as he was malign, a totally bewitching, terrifyingly clever figure. I worshipped every inch of him while being terrified.”
Breakfast with Lucian unravels the tangled complexity that is Lucian Freud with a combination of intelligent perception and juicy gossip! The end result is an eye-popping portrait that does justice to Freud's artistic genius and his spectacularly messy life. Highly recommended!
As is so often the case, it’s impossible to separate the man from his art. Freud lived a blatantly selfish life without much of a conscience, keeping scores of lovers and fathering as many as 30 children. He was a man who pushed boundaries, artistic as well as sexual: “Lovers, sitters, strangers and his own children went through an ever-revolving set of doors, often unaware of each other but with damaging repercussions when they did. He was the only person who knew the full cast of characters who sped in and out of his studio or bedroom.” Thanks to his charm and magnetism, he got away with even the most indefensible behavior. To quote the daughter of one of his lovers, “He was as magical as he was malign, a totally bewitching, terrifyingly clever figure. I worshipped every inch of him while being terrified.”
Breakfast with Lucian unravels the tangled complexity that is Lucian Freud with a combination of intelligent perception and juicy gossip! The end result is an eye-popping portrait that does justice to Freud's artistic genius and his spectacularly messy life. Highly recommended!
August 5, 2023
It is a difficult book to digest. Laying bare the intimate and private details of one of the most prolific artists of our times, the book has the ability to make the reader uncomfortable. The honest account of Lucian Freud’s life can at times come close to inducing disgust. But what I admire about it is that it sets out to present the artist’s life as it was without taking a moral stance, and it accomplishes it. With the unique distribution of chapters, it does not entirely come across as a typical biography, with a chronological account of life. At times it can get a bit gossipy. To anybody who admires Lucian Freud’s work but does have some qualms about his personal life, I do not recommend this book. Because your judgement will get the best of you. Better to not meet your idol.
To me, it paints a picture of a complex individual who lived unabashedly, and while there are a lot of things that he did in his life that I find questionable and extremely difficult to assimilate, it gives me an opportunity to understand how they fed into his art. In many ways, his art and life were inseparable. Anybody who chooses to read it will have to do so with some amount of risk, and completely letting go of the moral compass.
Oh, and the last chapter is quite moving.
To me, it paints a picture of a complex individual who lived unabashedly, and while there are a lot of things that he did in his life that I find questionable and extremely difficult to assimilate, it gives me an opportunity to understand how they fed into his art. In many ways, his art and life were inseparable. Anybody who chooses to read it will have to do so with some amount of risk, and completely letting go of the moral compass.
Oh, and the last chapter is quite moving.
November 25, 2017
I felt trusting towards the biographer due to the careful building up of relationship and establishment of his credentials at the start - it's a really well written book. I'm still uncertain of my feelings towards Lucien Freud after this book. I love his paintings and am astounded at what he did to get there. Interesting expose of artists egos? Terrible behaviour by maladjusted man? Classic Freudian relationship with mother? Appalling womaniser? Selfish prick? Social climber? User of people? The appalling "Portrait of the Artist with Admirer" which totally debases the young acolyte sums up for me the gross distortion of the artist as 'supreme individual'. The takeaway for me is the total obsession required to refine an artist's craft - whether it's love or pure ego that drove this in Freud's case is up for grabs.
July 20, 2020
Jammer genoeg las ik het boek in vertaling, soms vond ik die niet zo goed.
Het leven van Freud was een ongelooflijke soap, en ik kan mij dus voorstellen dat het heel lastig is een biografie te schrijven waar een rode draad in zit en plaats is voor anecdotes én inzicht in het werk- en denkproces van de schilder. Ik vond er af en toe teveel herhaling in zitten (ja, hij had een hekel aan te laat komers). Ook vond ik dat het begin van zijn carriëre beter uitgelegd had mogen worden, en de omslag van preciezige schilderijen naar de vlezige stijl.
Ik dacht onder het lezen "dit is een narcist", en tegen het einde van het boek zegt iemand die hem kende "het was geen narcisme". Ik wil dan graag weten waarom niet, en waarom al die kinderen toch van hem hielden. Kortom, een redelijk entertaining boek dat vragen oproept.
Het leven van Freud was een ongelooflijke soap, en ik kan mij dus voorstellen dat het heel lastig is een biografie te schrijven waar een rode draad in zit en plaats is voor anecdotes én inzicht in het werk- en denkproces van de schilder. Ik vond er af en toe teveel herhaling in zitten (ja, hij had een hekel aan te laat komers). Ook vond ik dat het begin van zijn carriëre beter uitgelegd had mogen worden, en de omslag van preciezige schilderijen naar de vlezige stijl.
Ik dacht onder het lezen "dit is een narcist", en tegen het einde van het boek zegt iemand die hem kende "het was geen narcisme". Ik wil dan graag weten waarom niet, en waarom al die kinderen toch van hem hielden. Kortom, een redelijk entertaining boek dat vragen oproept.
December 18, 2018
O livro é muito estilo tablóide - está mais preocupado com quem Lucian Freud dormiu, e outras picuinhas que nada acrescentam, do que com o processo do artista em si. Vocês vão pensar: "bom, o que esperar de uma biografia do Lucian Freud, que era amigo do Francis Bacon (logo de quem), né?" Mas vou te dizer, não havia necessidade do texto ser assim. Claro que toda biografia, de qualquer ser humano, envolve fatos e eventos pessoais, e isso faz parte e enriquece a obra da criatura. Porém, esse livro foi muito decepcionante porque ele enfatiza MUITO as amantes, as orgias, os podres etc, sem falar tanto da pintura. Totalmente sensacionalista. Parece um compêndio de matérias do The Sun. Não vale a pena.
March 1, 2023
Geordie Greig accomplishes the seemingly impossible task of convincing Lucian Freud, the notoriously private and often volatile British painter, to actually cooperate with a book about his life. Greig recounts how Freud once enlisted British gangsters to scare off an earlier would-be biographer. The result is a "warts-and-all" look at the famous portrait artist, that doesn't shy away from his womanizing, gambling, and lack of parenting to his many, many children. Fascinating stuff, although I do wish it included more images of Freud's paintings (I found myself often pausing my reading to look up the works being described).
October 30, 2021
Freud e le donne, Freud e le scommesse, Freud e la pittura non è possibile distinguere l’uomo dall’artista e non deve esserlo. Il libro è una biografia ma è scritta con calore affetto ed ammirazione. Freud ha attraversato quasi un secolo sempre concentrato sulla sua pittura ed i suoi soggetti ossessivamente impegnato sui suoi ritratti ci vedo molto del lavoro del nonno e ci vedo una continuazione un modo altro per scrutare il mistero dell’uomo .
August 8, 2017
The book was amazing
January 7, 2018
Silly, of course; occasionally revealing, uneventful style; bits of the story of a great talent.
March 16, 2018
Reading this book can do several things for you. You can, perhaps, learn to appreciate his art without revulsion. Can you also contemplate his lifestyle with equanimity? Should you? There is information about relationships, how they are formed and last or don’t last. Best, I think is the introduction to his children - Freud’s great grandchildren. They can’t be counted on your fingers, and maybe not on your fingers and toes. Esther Freud, author of Hideous Kinky, could not be more interesting. Enjoy...
August 18, 2019
Unbelievable insight into the mind and practice of Lucian Freud.
May 27, 2021
Loved this book, was a wonderful journey and an intimate way to enrich the experience of viewing Freud’s paintings. Perfect morning read with coffee and croissant.
December 22, 2024
Provided exactly what I was looking for namely an extended Tatler article from the former editor of Tatler himself
August 3, 2025
This was okay, but as with so much written about Freud, his sex life overshadows his art.
September 15, 2016
Wow. I remember being excited when i went to a very good Lucian Freud exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art in 2003. I wish i had known all of the information then, that i know now after reading this book.
Freud, grandson of Sigmund Freud, was simply an amazing person, an artist of the highest caliber and completely dedicated to his work. And then there's the other side. He was honestly completely selfish, fathered at LEAST 14 children (24 is more likely), had more affairs and sexual escapades than anyone else I've ever read about and could be rather cruel in personal relationships.
My least favorite chapter was 'First Loves' that chronicles all the women he slept with - it's like the Old Testament where So And So BEGAT So And That Person BEGAT So and So. I mean, it's endless. He actually had affairs with daughters of women he slept with in previous decades. Yes, he was very charming. Apparently he was also a machine.
My favorite chapter was the one called,'Paint'. I love reading about an artists' creative process and Greig breaks down how Freud approached a new painting, his love of paint and his absolute belief in figurative and portrait art, loyal to it through years of unpopularity when abstract and pop art reigned.
Watching videos of him were fascinating - his voice, his accent, the softness in his manner after reading what a womanizer he was. The world he lived in was fascinating. The years he was alive, 1922-2011 may have been the most interesting ever and you just kind of can't help really being sad at the end of the book. Nobody else like him ever, that's for sure.
Freud, grandson of Sigmund Freud, was simply an amazing person, an artist of the highest caliber and completely dedicated to his work. And then there's the other side. He was honestly completely selfish, fathered at LEAST 14 children (24 is more likely), had more affairs and sexual escapades than anyone else I've ever read about and could be rather cruel in personal relationships.
My least favorite chapter was 'First Loves' that chronicles all the women he slept with - it's like the Old Testament where So And So BEGAT So And That Person BEGAT So and So. I mean, it's endless. He actually had affairs with daughters of women he slept with in previous decades. Yes, he was very charming. Apparently he was also a machine.
My favorite chapter was the one called,'Paint'. I love reading about an artists' creative process and Greig breaks down how Freud approached a new painting, his love of paint and his absolute belief in figurative and portrait art, loyal to it through years of unpopularity when abstract and pop art reigned.
Watching videos of him were fascinating - his voice, his accent, the softness in his manner after reading what a womanizer he was. The world he lived in was fascinating. The years he was alive, 1922-2011 may have been the most interesting ever and you just kind of can't help really being sad at the end of the book. Nobody else like him ever, that's for sure.
March 3, 2014
It was interesting to read Breakfast with Lucian only a few weeks after finishing Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell Jr. On the surface, the books are quite different, but I was intrigued by the similarities of their two subjects: both artistic and descended from famous men, Lucian Freud and Huguette Clark were obsessed with privacy, eccentric, and lived by their own rules within the upper-class of their respective countries. Of course, Huguette never had to worry about money and lived (by all accounts) a chaste life whereas Lucian rang up millions of dollars of debt in his lifetime and slept with hundreds of women (and possibly some men too), but there’s an intriguing common thread that runs through both books that makes me glad I read them in close time.
Breakfast with Lucian is a wonderful tribute to a talented painter. Part of that is because, like his paintings, Lucian Freud’s biography does not shy away from contemplating the ugliness of its subject. Lucian Freud, in many respects, sounds like a horrible person, but the biography captures his spirit, and I finished it understanding why so many people loved him, even when he let them down. He truly was an original, and I’d like to think that, while he shied away from publicity, he would enjoy how Mr. Greig captured him. Recommended.
Breakfast with Lucian is a wonderful tribute to a talented painter. Part of that is because, like his paintings, Lucian Freud’s biography does not shy away from contemplating the ugliness of its subject. Lucian Freud, in many respects, sounds like a horrible person, but the biography captures his spirit, and I finished it understanding why so many people loved him, even when he let them down. He truly was an original, and I’d like to think that, while he shied away from publicity, he would enjoy how Mr. Greig captured him. Recommended.
November 7, 2022
This was thoroughly entertaining, the author was very close to Lucian Freud. What a life? He recognized 14 children, even had 3 children by 3 mothers in 1961. He could be cruel, tricky and unapologetic. However, he was charming and people loved him - and many stayed close to him for many years. Of course, there were the falling outs - but it didn't stop him. The grandson of Sigmund Freud, he was married at one time to a Guinness Heiress, with whom he did not have children. There are stories of him having affairs with women, and years later having affairs with their daughters. Sometimes you have to reread a passage to catch who did what to whom when and later where. Famous for painting large scale nudes and portraits, he painted most of children, several of them nude. He demanded his models be on time, and when the wife of a famous musician didn't show up 2x, he just painted her out of the portrait, replaced her with his male studio assistants head. He paid his irish bookie off with paintings, it is estimated as many as 25 painting, some valued in the $10mil range. His life was outrageous, but he got away with it all. An expert horseman, extremely well read, quoting William Blake and Flaubert's letter, I can understand people's fascination with him.
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