PAINTER'S PROGRESS, A

by David Dawson

For nearly twenty years David Dawson was Lucian Freud's assistant, companion and model. Freud was famously private. He carefully avoided distraction. With few exceptions, he only wanted those he knew well, like the late Bruce Bernard, to photograph him. David Dawson was in a unique position and Freud became comfortable in the presence of his camera. Photographing became part of the daily round of the studio. The results revealed many stages of paintings in progress. Few artists, if any, have had their lives and their work recorded over such a length of time.

Among those who regularly visited Freud were figures from the art world, including John Richardson, David Hockney and Frank Auerbach, along with a flow of models and friends. He was as happy in the company of Kate Moss as he was with the Duke of Beaufort. Despite his sense of privacy, Freud's circle was wide.

The book begins in Freud's old studio in Holland Park and then records the artist in his eighteenth-century house, the first floor of which was his final studio. It ends with views of the rooms in which Freud's own extraordinary collection of paintings was hung. It is the only record of the house before the dispersal of the art on his death.

Ultimately David Dawson's photographs create an intimate portrait of the man. The final images are of the hanging of Preud's work in his posthumous London exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

Genres: Art, Biography, Memoir

Hardcover

First published September 4, 2014

Reviews

[Lucy]

logging this as a book read feels a little like cheating, because it’s mostly just photographs with occasional page long extracts of conversation. but also it has lucien freud holding a falcon in it so that was cool! lucien freud’s uncanny interest in perception and particularly perception of flesh, of faces, is always captivating - and then to have a documentation of this perception (a perception of a perception?) is very very captivating

also it has a picture of freud with david hockney and hockney looks like someone’s kind and very polite grandpa whereas freud is someone’s very chaotic grandpa, which is my new way of thinking of contemporary art history

[Betty-Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect accompaniment to the biography of Lucian Freud I just finished reading.

[Tuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

photographer david dawson's been hanging with the freud and family for long time, this beautiful coffe table size book documents some of the late paintings, portraits mostly, and behind the scenes activities like hanging in the back garden, hanging pictures in shows, hanging with lucian in the neighborhood. so intimate photos, and fascinating look in the studio and house of lucian freud and his subjects. very little , but important texts by dawson too. vast majority is big format color photos.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although there is little print and mostly photographs, this is an extremely interesting and beautiful book. I took a lot of time with this book, as I felt as though I was peeking into the life of the artist...I was with him in his studio, there with his friends, travelling with him, and walking through galleries with him. I disappeared into his world for a short while and it was fascinating...inspiring.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dawson's photographs are beautiful and bring to life the end of Freud's.

[Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely beautiful—cover to cover! You feel like a fly on the paint speckled wall of Freud’s studio, as you get a rare glimpse of him painting everyone from Queen Elizabeth to David Hockney. You’re filled with joy as you see him admiring paintings by the greats in museums around the world and spending time with his family and friends at exhibitions. As the years in the captions get closer and closer to 2011, you know the end is coming, and then it hits you: an empty studio, a lone dog, a pair of work boots, and no Lucian; yet the paintings on his walls remain. These photographs are poetic, presenting the daily life of one of the greatest portrait painters in the most natural of light.

[Hansel5 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up from the library after reading an article in the New Yorker on Freud. He is an artist I discovered in New York in at a ground-breaking exhibition in the 2000s.
The book is brief, more like a coffee table book, but with good reproductions. The photos show his London studio, his dogs, some of his models, and a wild (unkempt) garden in his house he liked using as background.

[Andrea Engle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picture book, really ... a collection of lush (presumably "4 x 5"s) photographs of Lucian Freud, his paintings, his studio, his models, his general milieu ... scant text, would have liked more ...